Still no progress in truce talks

GAZA STRIP: International mediators and Hamas delegates have met in Cairo, still trying to secure a pause in the war in Gaza before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Envoys from the Palestinian militant group and the US were expected to meet with Qatari and Egyptian mediators for a third day of negotiations over a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and the flow of aid to Gaza.

Israeli delegates have so far stayed away from the negotiations, despite diplomatic pressure for a truce before Ramadan early next week.

Israeli media reported that the country’s mediators boycotted the talks after Hamas failed to provide a list of living hostages.

Israel has said it believes 130 of the 250 captives taken by Hamas in the October attack that triggered the war remain in Gaza, but that 31 have been killed.

As conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory deteriorate and the spectre of famine looms, Israel is facing an increasingly sharp rebuke from its top ally the United States.

US President Joe Biden warned of a “very, very dangerous” situation without a Gaza ceasefire deal by Ramadan, adding that it was up to Hamas to accept a deal as talks continue in Cairo.

As the US military made its second airdrop of aid to Gaza, Biden also told ally Israel there were “no excuses” for failing to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave.

The UN’s food agency on Tuesday said its aid convoy had been turned away by Israeli forces at a checkpoint to northern Gaza, after which it was looted by “desperate people”.

The World Food Programme said the 14-truck food convoy waited at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, inside southeast Gaza, for three hours before being turned away by the Israeli army.

It was the first convoy attempted since the agency halted deliveries to the north of Gaza on February 20, after its convoy of trucks faced gunfire and looting.