Bombay Durpun - Gaza ceasefire talks start in Qatar as war toll tops 40,000 dead

Talks opened in Qatar's capital amid a wider international diplomatic bid to ease tensions that have spiked since the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

An Israeli delegation attended the Doha talks, which also involved US Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns.

But the Palestinian militants took no direct part. Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group would join indirect negotiations if Israel made new commitments.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington that "today is a promising start" but acknowledged: "There remains a lot of work to do."

The Palestinian group has demanded the implementation of a ceasefire plan and prisoner-hostage swap as laid out on May 31 by US President Joe Biden.

A ceasefire deal must lead to the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated territory, Hamas official Hossam Badran said in a statement released after the first day of talks.

"Any agreement must achieve a comprehensive ceasefire, a complete (Israeli) withdrawal from Gaza, (and) the return of the displaced," Badran said.

Hamdan told AFP that "so far there's nothing new" from Israel.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces must keep control of Gaza's frontier with Egypt to thwart arms movements into the territory.

Since the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel set off the war, there has been one week-long truce in November, when 105 hostages seized in the attack were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

"Given the... disturbing number of people who remain unaccounted for, who may be trapped or dead under the rubble, this number may, if anything, be an undercount," a spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said.

"This is yet another reason why we need to have a ceasefire now, as well as the release of all hostages and unimpeded humanitarian assistance."

The Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties, said the tally included 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours.

The Israeli military said it had killed "more than 17,000" Palestinian militants in Gaza since October 7.

- 'Prevent wider war' -

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy and France's Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne were to discuss the truce talks with Israel's top diplomat Israel Katz on Friday.

A US envoy, Amos Hochstein, has also been in the region. He said Wednesday in Beirut that a Gaza deal "would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war".

Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Mediation efforts since the November truce have repeatedly stalled. Hamas officials and some critics in Israel have said Netanyahu has deliberately sought to prolong the war.

Israeli media this week quoted Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as privately telling a parliamentary committee that a hostage release deal "is stalling... in part because of Israel".

Netanyahu's office accused Gallant of adopting an "anti-Israel narrative".

- Bloodied children -

The latest mediation push follows the July 31 killing of Hamas leader Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. Israel has not commented on the claims.

Western leaders have urged Tehran to avoid hitting Israel over Haniyeh's killing, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed the top military commander of the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

Fallout from the conflict has drawn in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

More than 370 Hezbollah members have been killed in 10 months of near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces, according to an AFP tally, more than the movement lost in its 2006 war with Israel.

On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, including in the annexed Golan Heights, according to military figures.

In Gaza, where the war has destroyed most of the territory's housing and other infrastructure, the deadliest bombardment reported Thursday killed five people in Gaza City, emergency services said.

Israel's military said troops had killed about 20 militants in Rafah, southern Gaza.

On Wednesday, dead and wounded including bloodied children arrived at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis after an Israeli strike.

"I was not pro-Hamas but now I support them and I want to fight," one grieving man shouted.

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