US urges immediate ceasefire in Gaza
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Mediators in Egypt on Monday pushed with efforts toward a Gaza truce after Israel’s top ally, the United States, 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 the Hamas-ruled territory, which has been devastated and gripped by dire food shortages in the war sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s 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 television channel linked to the intelligence service reported “significant progress” toward a truce deal without giving any more details, while a Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said talks were continuing.
The plan on the table 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 has insisted that his army will finish its campaign to destroy Hamas, including in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge.
Israel has also demanded a list of all the remaining captives. It believes 130 of the original 250 captives taken by Hamas remain in Gaza, but that 31 have been killed.
In the US, Vice President Kamala Harris called on Sunday for the six-week truce deal to be accepted while criticizing Israel in unusually strong language over insufficient aid deliveries into Gaza.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table,” she said in a speech in Selma, Alabama.
“Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire,” she added. “Well, there is a deal on the table. And, as we have said, Hamas needs to agree to that deal.”
The vice president also stressed that Gazans were starving and conditions were “inhumane,” and demanded that Netanyahu’s government “must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses.”
Gantz in Washington
Her comments come as President Joe Biden faces acute pressure in an election year over his steadfast support for Israel and Gaza’s soaring civilian death toll, which the Health Ministry there put at 30,534, mostly women and children.
Harris, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, were set to meet Israel’s former military chief Benny Gantz in Washington, D.C.
Gantz is a member of Netanyahu’s War Cabinet, and also a centrist political rival of the rightwing veteran premier, whom he harshly criticized before the war.
In a sign of political divisions, Gantz’s US visit was criticized by Doudi Amsellem, minister of regional cooperation, in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “Mr. Gantz, your entry into government was intended to create unity at a time of emergency, not to be a Trojan horse.”
Amid the crisis diplomacy, the Gaza conflict ground on unabated, with witnesses reporting clashes in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood and the main southern city of Khan Younis.
The Hamas government media office said “dozens of airstrikes” and “intense artillery shelling” hit areas across the Strip.
The Israeli military said it carried out “targeted raids” in the Khan Younis area, killed “15 terrorists” over the past day, and detained dozens of suspects linked to Palestinian armed groups.
Gaza’s hunger crisis came into stark relief last Thursday when more than 100 Palestinians were killed in chaotic and bloody scenes around a convoy of aid trucks in Gaza City.
Gaza health officials said Israeli forces opened fire into the crowd, while Israel’s army said most victims were trampled to death or hit by trucks in a crush for food.
The United Nations 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.”