Biden urges immediate ceasefire in call with Netanyahu; Israeli security delegation in Qatar for Gaza talks

A top-level Israeli security delegation arrived in Qatar on Sunday for talks on a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, said a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a possible sign of so-far elusive agreements nearing.

Israel planned to use tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to pay the PA’s nearly 2 billion shekel ($544-million) debt to state-run Israel Electric Co, said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday.

Biden stresses need for immediate ceasefire in call with Netanyahu

US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the White House, as US officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on 20 January.

Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts under way to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, said the White House in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone.

Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” it said.

Netanyahu updated Biden on progress in the talks and on the mandate he has given his top-level security delegation now in Doha in order to advance a hostage deal, said Netanyahu in a statement.

The two leaders also discussed “the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran’s power in the region,” said the White House.

Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s State of the Union programme earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, but still had to get it across the finish line.

He said Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” said Sullivan, “and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”

He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent”.

During their call, Netanyahu also thanked Biden for his lifelong support of Israel and “the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel’s security and national defence,” said the White House.

Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.

Top Israeli security delegation in Doha for Gaza talks

A top-level Israeli security delegation arrived in Qatar on Sunday for talks on a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, said a spokesperson for Netanyahu, in a possible sign of so-far elusive agreements nearing.

Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that the delegation includes Mossad Head David Barnea, the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service Ronen Bar and the military’s head of the hostage brief, Nitzan Alon.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met on Saturday with Netanyahu, after having met on Friday with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas but did not elaborate. The sides have been keeping a tight lid on the details being worked out.

It is unclear how they will bridge one of the biggest gaps that has persisted throughout previous rounds of talks: Hamas demands an end to the war while Israel says it won’t end the war as long as Hamas rules Gaza and poses a threat to Israelis.

Israel to use withheld Palestinian tax income to pay electric company debt

Israel planned to use tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to pay the PA’s nearly 2 billion shekel ($544-million) debt to state-run Israel Electric Co (IEC), said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday.

Israel collects tax on goods that pass through Israel into the occupied West Bank on behalf of the PA and transfers the revenue to Ramallah under a longstanding arrangement between the two sides.

Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, triggered the war in Gaza, Smotrich has withheld sums totalling 800 million shekels earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza.

Those frozen funds are held in Norway and, he said at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, would instead be used to pay debt owed to the IEC of 1.9 billion shekels.

“The procedure was implemented after several anti-Israeli actions and included Norway’s unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich told Cabinet ministers.

The Palestinian Finance Ministry said it had agreed for Norway to release a portion of funds from an account held since last January with 1.5 billion shekels, calling money in the account “a punitive measure linked to the government’s financial support for Gaza”.

The ministry said as part of the deal, 767 million shekels of the Norwegian-held funds would pay Israeli fuel companies for weekly fuel purchases over the coming months. A similar amount will be used to settle electricity-related debts owed by Palestinian distribution companies to the IEC.

Smotrich has been opposed to sending funds to the PA, which uses the money to pay public sector wages. He accuses the PA of supporting the 7 October attack in Israel led by the Islamist movement Hamas, which controlled Gaza. The PA is currently paying 50-60% of salaries.

Israel also deducts funds equal to the total amount of so-called martyr payments, which the PA pays to families of militants and civilians killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities.

The Palestinian finance ministry said 2.1 billion shekels remain withheld by Israel, bringing the total withheld funds to over 3.6 billion shekels as of 2024.

Israel, it said, began deducting an average of 275 million shekels monthly from its tax revenues in October 2023, equivalent to the government’s monthly allocations for Gaza.

“This has exacerbated the financial crisis, as the government continues to transfer these allocations directly to the accounts of public servants in Gaza,” said the ministry.

It added it was working with international partners to secure the release of these funds as soon as possible.

US House votes to sanction International Criminal Court over Israel

The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) in protest at its arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister over Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

The vote was 243 to 140 in favour of the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, which would sanction any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes US citizens or those of an allied country, including Israel, who are not members of the court.

Forty-five Democrats joined 198 Republicans in backing the bill. No Republican voted against it.

“America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel,” said Representative Brian Mast, Republican chairperson of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a House speech before the vote.

The ICC said it noted the bill with concern and warned it could rob victims of atrocities of justice and hope.

Iran holding war games as it faces Israel tensions, Trump’s return

Iran was holding air defence exercises on Saturday, state media reported, as the country braces for more friction with arch-enemy Israel and the US under incoming US president Donald Trump.

The war games take place as Iranian leaders face the risk that Trump could empower Netanyahu to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, while further tightening US sanctions on its oil industry through his “maximum pressure” policy.

“In these exercises … defence systems will practise the fight against air, missile and electronic warfare threats in real battlefield conditions ... to protect the country’s skies and sensitive and vital areas,” said Iranian state television.

Iran’s military has said it was using new drones and missiles in the exercises and released footage of a new underground “missile city” being visited by Guards Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami. DM

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