'There are talks going on between Hamas and Israeli officials in Doha'
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Transcript
00:00 Well, there's a very cautious optimism, I'd say.
00:05 Very cautious indeed, though.
00:07 There's even been a little bit of pushback against those comments by Joe Biden,
00:12 expressing optimism that a ceasefire, some kind of ceasefire deal could be in place as early as next week.
00:18 One Israeli media outlet reporting that an Israeli official had said there was still a lot of work to be done.
00:25 We know that Hamas is studying the draft proposal which was put together and put forward by American,
00:32 Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials over the weekend at those Paris talks.
00:38 They would include, those proposals would include plans to swap Palestinian prisoners for a group of Israeli hostages,
00:45 also provisions to put in place a temporary ceasefire.
00:49 We also know that there are talks going on between Hamas and Israeli officials in Doha this week.
00:55 They're not direct talks, that's why they're called proximity talks.
00:59 Whichever way you look at it, I think what's happening here is that there is a concerted effort by some of the parties involved here
01:07 to create, to build momentum ahead of Ramadan, whether it's by leaking details of truce talks to the media,
01:15 to try and incite and push both sides into reaching some sort of deal before Ramadan.
01:21 And Andrew, the war presumably high on the minds of Israeli voters today who are going to the polls in municipal elections.
01:30 Tell us a bit about this vote because I know you've been reporting on it and particularly in the north of Israel,
01:36 where I understand some Israelis can't vote because of instability along the border with Lebanon.
01:45 Yes, indeed. These are long-awaited municipal elections.
01:48 Long-awaited because they've already been delayed twice because of the war in Gaza
01:53 and because of clashes along Israel's border with Lebanon.
01:57 But not everyone will be able to vote.
02:00 These elections taking place under the shadow of war, 11 municipalities not able to vote.
02:07 That's because their residents were evacuated back in October.
02:10 And that includes regions in northern Israel along the Lebanese border where our team went yesterday.
02:15 Take a look.
02:17 It's the end of the school day in Kibbutz Amir and Aviad is taking his son, Itay, back home.
02:24 They evacuated last October but after five weeks the family decided to return.
02:29 Here it's written nursery for now. It's a nursery in a bomb shelter. It's only temporary.
02:37 He says he isn't scared but he can't go to the bathroom by himself anymore.
02:42 Someone has to go with him.
02:45 Aviad, his wife and five children were never given mandatory evacuation orders.
02:50 But 10 kilometers from the border the sound of sirens punctuates their daily lives
02:55 and they leave the kibbutz as little as possible.
03:00 If I want to buy bread for the Sabbath it means I have to take a risk.
03:05 Should I go to Kiryat Shimonah or not? Should I buy bread or not?
03:10 This whole situation is completely surreal.
03:13 Whilst much of Israel votes in municipal elections,
03:17 here they've been delayed for the third time since October.
03:20 Yoam Eben Tuzor, an elected official, says it was inevitable.
03:26 We can't hold elections in regions where people have been evacuated.
03:32 In our region some of the kibbutz that sit right on the border have been evacuated.
03:38 But we're still here. We've been here since October the 7th and we feel abandoned.
03:46 Reminders of war are never too far away.
03:49 On a nearby farm, Maxim shows us a corrugated iron roof
03:53 punctured by shrapnel from a missile in 2006 when Israel invaded southern Lebanon.
04:00 Those are the remnants. It wasn't caused by rust.
04:04 It was caused by shrapnel.
04:06 When the missile landed, it sent shrapnel everywhere.
04:10 With each passing day, we count ourselves lucky that it hasn't happened again.
04:18 At least five civilians have been killed by Hezbollah strikes in northern Israel since October.
04:24 The figure is 10 times higher across the border in southern Lebanon,
04:28 where Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 civilians.
04:31 And just to give you the latest developments coming out of northern Israel,
04:39 earlier this morning the Israeli military confirming that Hezbollah had fired rockets
04:44 at military targets in northern Israel.
04:48 The IDF for its part saying it had responded to those attacks
04:51 with more strikes on Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon.
04:55 Back to you.