US President Joe Biden has sent CIA Director Bill Burns to Egypt. A Hamas delegation will arrive on Sunday to join the talks, the militant group said.
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Hamas has insisted on linking a phased end to the war to any agreement releasing hostages. It has said it will agree to release 40 as part of an initial six-week ceasefire deal that would include the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Hamas also seeks the return of displaced people to devastated northern Gaza and more aid.
Israel has offered to allow 2000 displaced Palestinians – mainly women, children and older people – to return to Gaza’s north every day during a six-week ceasefire.
The talks come days after international condemnation of Israeli airstrikes that killed seven humanitarian workers with the World Central Kitchen charity. The Israeli military described it as a tragic error. Aid groups said the mistake is hardly an anomaly. The UN says at least 190 aid workers were killed in Gaza through the end of March.
Some Israel allies now consider halting arms sales. Biden warned Netanyahu that future US support for the war depends on swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
“We need security guarantees for us as humanitarians but also for the people we serve,” said Marika Guderian with the World Food Program, speaking inside Gaza.
The killings halted aid deliveries on a crucial new sea route for aid directly to Gaza as the UN and partners warn of “imminent famine” for 1.1 million people, or half the population. The humanitarian group Oxfam says people in northern Gaza are surviving on an average of 245 calories a day.
In Jabaliya, a refugee camp near Gaza City, families scrounged in the rubble for mallow leaves to make a thin broth to break the daily Ramadan fast. “Life has become miserable. They [daughters] tell me, ‘Father, you are feeding us mallow, mallow, mallow every day. We want to eat fish, chicken, canned food. We are craving eggs, or anything’,” said Wael Attar. They shelter in a school as part of the 1.7 million people displaced in Gaza.
Israel has promised to open more border crossings into Gaza and increase the flow of aid. The UN says that in March, 85 per cent of trucks with food aid were denied or impeded.
More than 33,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began, the territory’s Health Ministry said. Its death toll doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it has said women and children make up the majority of the dead.
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The ministry said the bodies of 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes had been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours – the lowest daily tally in months.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, accusing it of operating in residential communities and public areas like hospitals.
AP, Reuters