Israel-Hamas war latest: Day 2 of cease-fire talks in Qatar as mediators try to prevent regional war

Internationally mediated cease-fire talks in Qatar are expected to enter their second day Friday in an effort to prevent the war in Gaza from spreading into a wider regional conflict. Though Hamas is not directly participating, representatives from Qatar and Egypt are engaged on their behalf.

Meanwhile, Israel’s foreign minister is set to meet with his counterparts from the United Kingdom and France on Friday to discuss preventing regional escalation.

The new push for an end to the Israel-Hamas war comes as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities. The United Nations chief said he believes the number is accurate, or even an undercount.

Mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. That would likely calm tensions across the region and may persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to refrain from retaliatory strikes on Israel after the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Iran’s capital.

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