Time is ticking on Gaza ceasefire

GAZA STRIP: Envoys are pushing on with efforts for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal in talks in Cairo, hoping to halt nearly five months of fighting with days to go before Ramadan.

US President Joe Biden has urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before the Muslim fasting month begins, which could be as early as Sunday depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.

As negotiators in Egypt sought to overcome tough stumbling blocks, fighting again rocked Gaza where the UN warns famine looms and desperate crowds have stopped and looted food aid trucks.

Gazans were waiting to collect bags of flour outside an office of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Rafah, now home to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by the war.

In Khan Yunis, meanwhile, dozens of people went to inspect their homes before streaming out along streets lined by bombed-out buildings, carrying what belongings they could recover after Israeli forces pulled out of the city centre.

Mr Biden on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept the truce plan brokered by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, saying: “It’s in the hands of Hamas right now.”

The proposed deal would pause fighting for “at least six weeks”, see the “release of sick, wounded, elderly and women hostages” and allow for “a surge of humanitarian assistance”, the White House said.

One known sticking point centres on an Israeli demand for Hamas to provide a list of about 100 hostages believed to still be alive – a task Hamas says it is unable to complete while bombing continues.

The war began after Hamas launched the October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in about 1160 deaths, most of them civilians. The militants also took about 250 hostages, and Israel believes 99 of them remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 30,717 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel has vowed to push on with the campaign to destroy Hamas.