Pressure for truce deal builds as new round of Gaza ceasefire talks begins in Qatar
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00:00Now, let's talk about the ceasefire talks taking place in Doha today, Iris, because
00:04Hamas says it's not taking part, but it is set to be briefed by the mediators. In any other
00:10negotiation as well, ceasefire talks, Israel and Hamas would not be sitting in the same room,
00:16would they? That's right. They have never sat in the same room. You know, that's going back
00:21many previous conflicts, 2014, after that as well. So that is not so unusual. You know,
00:28what is unusual, I guess it's a little bit of theatrics, them saying we won't be there.
00:33Nevertheless, they are in Doha. They will be briefed. The difference, I guess, is that Ismail
00:38Haniyeh was one of the negotiators. He was taken out in a targeted killing by Israel in Tehran a
00:45couple of weeks ago. You know, I'm not even sure how much of a difference that makes, since he was
00:52a negotiator. He wasn't a decision maker. The decision maker was Yehia Sinwar back in the
00:59tunnels beneath Gaza. That situation remains the same. And the person who is now the negotiator,
01:05or speaking on behalf of Yehia Sinwar, is actually closer to him than Haniyeh was. So that's all a
01:12bit of inside baseball. I guess what I'm saying to you is if they want to reach an agreement,
01:16they can, even in these circumstances. Iris, we've had so many ceasefire talks that have
01:22taken place. We've been on the cusp of them. We've been on the 100-yard line. I don't know
01:26how many expressions we've had. We've even had the US president, I recall, standing in an ice cream
01:31shop, licking his ice cream, saying, buy this weekend. And then talks fell through. Are these
01:37talks any different? You know, it's very hard to say. I have heard assessments that are more
01:44optimistic. And I've heard people who remain as pessimistic as they were the last time,
01:49even when Joe Biden was licking that ice cream and saying it would all be all right.
01:53So I think we have to wait and see. We have to see if the 10-month mark that we've reached,
01:58if the high death toll, the record death toll in Gaza, if all those things, the assassination
02:04of the Hamas military leader Mohamed Def, if all those things make a difference to Yehia Sinwar at
02:09this point, or they don't. And I think that's really what we're waiting to see. And I'm not
02:14going to take a side and say what I think, because whatever I think, say will be wrong.
02:20We'll see how things pan out. Thank you very much for that, Iris.
02:23Iris Mackler reporting for us from Jerusalem.