Efforts for a Gaza truce are intensifying with mediation from Cairo, involving US and Hamas representatives, aiming to halt the conflict before Ramadan. International pressure mounts for increased aid delivery into Gaza amidst dire humanitarian conditions, while political divisions emerge in Israel.
Mediators in Cairo pushed for efforts towards a Gaza truce on Monday after the United States, Israel’s top ally, stepped up pressure for a halt in fighting and more aid to enter the besieged Palestinian territory.
Bombardment and combat claimed 124 more lives within 24 hours, said the Health Ministry in Gaza which has been devastated and gripped by dire food shortages in the war sparked by Hamas’ October 7 attacks.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators met with US and Hamas envoys – but no Israeli delegates so far – in Cairo for a second day of talks aiming for a halt in fighting before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan starts on March 10 or 11.
An Egyptian TV channel linked to the intelligence service reported “significant progress” towards a truce deal without giving any more details, while a Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the talks were continuing.
The plan aims for a six-week truce, the exchange of scores of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and for more aid to enter Gaza – but sticking points remain.
Hamas wants Israel to withdraw all forces, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the army will finish its campaign to destroy Hamas, including in far-southern Rafah where about 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.
‘Powder Keg’
The UN Security Council voiced concern over Gaza’s “alarming levels of acute food insecurity” and urged “the immediate, rapid, safe, sustained and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale.”
Palestinian families told AFP that they are grinding up animal feed and foraged plants, while the Health Ministry said that at least 16 children died of malnutrition in Gaza’s aid-deprived north.
Blinken said on X that “it is imperative that we expand the flow of aid into Gaza to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation.”
A Hamas official said that the group wants the truce deal to include “the entry of at least 400 to 500 trucks per day” carrying food, medicine and fuel.
Witnesses told AFP that an Israeli strike hit an aid truck in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Sunday, killing several people.
The Israeli military denied the claim and told AFP, “It was not an aid truck that was struck.”
It issued a statement saying that a Hamas militant responsible for recruiting and fundraising was travelling inside the truck and “was eliminated in an aerial strike.”
The Gaza war sparked violence across the region, drawing in Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where Houthis attacked shipping off its coast.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk warned that the war “has already generated dangerous spillover in neighbouring countries, and I am deeply concerned that in this powder keg, any spark could lead to a much broader conflagration.”
“This would have implications for every country in the Middle East and many beyond it,” Turk said in his global update to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
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With AFP
