Category World News

Hamas and Israel have concluded a second day of indirect negotiations on United States President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the war on Gaza, as senior Qatari and US officials headed to Egypt to join the talks.

Speaking at the White House on the second anniversary of the start of the war, Trump said that there was a “real chance” of a Gaza deal, as Tuesday’s talks wrapped up in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

However, the day had opened with an umbrella of Palestinian factions – including Hamas – issuing a statement that promised a “resistance stance by all means”, stressing that “no one has the right to cede the weapons of the Palestinian people” – an apparent reference to a key demand for the disarmament of the armed group contained in Trump’s 20-point plan.

Senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said that the group’s negotiators were seeking an end to the war and “complete withdrawal of the occupation army” from Gaza. But Trump’s plan is vague regarding the exit of Israeli troops, offering no specific timeline for the staged rollout, which would only happen after Hamas returns the 48 Israeli captives it still holds, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

A senior Hamas official who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity after Tuesday’s talks indicated that the group intends to release captives in stages linked to the withdrawal of Israel’s military from Gaza.

The official said that Tuesday’s talks had focused on scheduling the release of Israeli captives and withdrawal maps for Israeli forces, with the group stressing that the release of the last Israeli hostage must coincide with the final withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas’s top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group did “not trust the occupation, not even for a second”, according to Egyptian state-linked Al Qahera News. He said Hamas wanted “real guarantees” that the war would end and not be restarted, accusing Israel of violating two ceasefires in the war on Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement to mark the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that sparked Israel’s war on Gaza, calling the last two years of conflict a “war for our very existence and future”.

He said that Israel was “in fateful days of decision”, without alluding directly to the ceasefire talks. Israel, he said, would “continue to act to achieve all the war’s objectives: the return of all the hostages, the elimination of Hamas’s rule, and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel”.

Staying flexible

Despite signs of continued differences, the talks appear to be the most promising sign of progress towards ending the war yet, with Israel and Hamas both endorsing many parts of Trump’s plan.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said the mediators – Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye – were staying flexible and developing ideas as the ceasefire talks progress.

“We don’t go with preconceived notions to the negotiations. We develop these formulations during the talks themselves, which is happening right now,” he said.

Al-Ansari told Al Jazeera that Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani will join other mediators – including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for the US – on Wednesday in Egypt.

Sheikh Mohammed’s “participation confirms the mediators’ determination to reach an agreement that ends the war”, al-Ansari said.

Even if a deal is clinched, questions linger about who will govern Gaza and rebuild it, and who will finance the huge cost of reconstruction.

Trump and Netanyahu have ruled out any role for Hamas, with the former’s plan proposing that Palestinian “technocrats” run day-to-day affairs in Gaza under an international transitional governance body – the so-called “Board of Peace” – that would be overseen by Trump himself and the divisive former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Hamas’s Barhoum said the group wanted to see “the immediate start of the comprehensive reconstruction process under the supervision of a Palestinian national body”.

Israeli attacks continue

The second anniversary of the war, which was sparked by deadly attacks on Israel that were led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, saw Israel pressing on with its offensive in Gaza, drones and fighter jets strafing the skies, targeting the Sabra and Tal al-Hawa residential areas in Gaza City and the road to nearby Shati camp.

At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Tuesday, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, adding to the grim toll of more than 66,600 deaths over the entire conflict. At least 104 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since Friday, the day Trump called on Israel to halt its bombing campaign.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said on Tuesday that a boy had been shot in the head in eastern Gaza and that at least six Palestinians were killed in separate attacks across Khan Younis in the south of the Strip.

“Everyone’s waiting for a peace deal as the bombs continue to fall,” she said, reporting from az-Zuwayda in central Gaza. “The Israeli forces continue destroying entire residential neighbourhoods and residential areas where Palestinians thought they would go back and rebuild their lives.”

Marking the anniversary, ACLED, a US-based conflict monitor, said Gaza has endured more than 11,110 air and drone strikes and at least 6,250 shelling and artillery attacks throughout the war. Gaza’s dead accounted for 14 percent of total reported deaths from conflicts worldwide over the past two years.

The United States Supreme Court appears poised to side with a challenge against a Colorado law that bans psychotherapists from conducting “conversion therapy” on minors in an attempt to influence their gender identification or sexuality.

On Tuesday, the high court, which has a six-to-three conservative majority, heard arguments in the case, which weighs whether the ban violates the protections for free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The complaint was brought by licensed counsellor Kaley Chiles, a Christian who claims Colorado’s law infringes on her free speech rights.

But the state has defended its law. Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson argued that the ban regulates harmful conduct, not speech.

The 2019 Colorado law prohibits licensed mental healthcare providers from seeking to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity with a predetermined outcome in mind. That practice, known as conversion therapy, has been often associated with religious prohibitions against gay or transgender identities.

Detractors have warned that such “therapy” is pseudoscience and can be harmful, not to mention discriminatory, for LGBTQ youth.

Justices weigh arguments

Colorado maintains that Chiles’s allegations of free-speech violations are hypothetical because the state has not actually disciplined her.

But the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative organisation representing Chiles, has argued that the danger is that professionals might censor themselves for fear of punishment.

James Campbell, a lawyer for Chiles, told the justices that Colorado’s law “forbids counsellors like Kaley Chiles from helping minors pursue state-disfavoured goals on issues of gender and sexuality”.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito seemed to embrace that claim that Colorado’s law marginalises certain points of view.

At one point in Tuesday’s hearing, Alito told Stevenson that her state’s measure allows therapists to help a patient feel comfortable about being gay but bars them from helping a patient who seeks to “end or lessen” their same-sex attraction.

“It seems to me your statute dictates opposite results in those two situations,” Alito said, adding, “Looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination.”

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts also pushed back on Colorado’s law and on Stevenson’s assertion that it only regulates the conduct of licensed therapists.

The court’s precedents make clear that “just because they’re engaged in conduct doesn’t mean that their words aren’t protected”, Roberts said.

Concerns from medical professionals

Colorado is one of more than 20 states in the US that have banned conversion therapy, a widely discredited practice in the medical field.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is one of the groups that has spoken out against the practice.

On its website, the academy warns that conversion therapy could trigger or worsen mental health conditions among minors. It also says the practice could stigmatise LGBTQ identity.

“These interventions are provided under the false premise that homosexuality and gender diverse identities are pathological,” it explains. “They are not; the absence of pathology means there is no need for conversion or any other like intervention.”

In 2019, the Williams Institute, a think tank at the School of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles, issued a report that found as many as 698,000 LGBTQ adults had undergone conversion therapy at some point in their lives. That included about 350,000 who received treatment as adolescents.

“This court has recognised that state power is at its apex when it regulates to ensure safety in the healthcare professions,” Stevenson told the justices in her opening remarks.

“Colorado’s law lies at the bull’s-eye centre of this protection because it prohibits licensed professionals from performing one specific treatment because that treatment does not work and carries great risk of harm.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected by the end of June.

In recent rulings, the court’s conservative majority has largely sided with arguments that expand the concept of religious freedom, even in cases that raise questions of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

Trump pledges US security guarantees for Gaza two years after the war started, calling for a “very close” Middle East peace agreement. Envoys from the United States are traveling to Egypt for what officials believe are the most promising talks to end the conflict.

Argentine President Javier Milei took to the stage, singing 80’s rock classics, while his government is under fire for an economic crisis.

Israelis marked two since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, holding vigils to remember those killed and pray for those still held captive in Gaza.