US urges speedy Gaza truce deal as talks continue
PALESTINIANTERRITORIES: International mediators were set for a fourth day of talks with Hamas in Egypt on Wednesday after United States President Joe Biden called on the Palestinian militant group to agree a truce deal with Israel by the start of Ramadan.
Envoys have discussed plans to halt the fighting that has raged since Hamas’ October 7 attacks before the Muslim fasting month starts on Sunday or Monday, depending on the sighting of the full moon.
As famine threatens the besieged Gaza Strip, US and Jordanian planes again airdropped food aid into the territory of 2.4 million people in a joint operation with Egypt and France on Tuesday.
THE World Health Organization (WHO) has reported children dying of starvation in two northern Gaza hospitals, and US Vice President Kamala Harris has expressed “deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.”
Envoys from Hamas and the US have been meeting Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo to discuss a plan for a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a greater flow of aid to Gaza.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is close to the North African country’s intelligence services, said the talks would continue on Wednesday.
Biden urged Hamas to quickly agree to a truce and hostage release deal after his top diplomat Antony Blinken told the group to accept an “immediate ceasefire.”
“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” the president told reporters from Maryland. “There’s got to be a ceasefire because … if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”
He did not elaborate, but the US urged Israel last week to allow Muslims to pray at Jerusalem’s AlAqsa mosque compound, a frequent flashpoint during Ramadan.
The Israeli government said on Tuesday it would allow Muslim worshippers access to that compound in annexed east Jerusalem “in [numbers similar] to those in previous years.”
Hostage list
Israeli negotiators have so far stayed away from the talks in Egypt’s capital, with Israeli media reporting that they boycotted them after Hamas failed to provide a list of living hostages.
Senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim said details on the captives had not been “mentioned in any documents or proposals circulated during the negotiation process.”
“The Hamas movement has shown the required flexibility with the aim of reaching an agreement requiring a comprehensive cessation of aggression against our people,” the group said in a statement.
“The movement will continue to negotiate through mediator brothers to reach an agreement that fulfills the demands and interests of our people,” it added.
However, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, warned that the group would “not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely.”
Israel believes that 130 of the 250 captives taken by Hamas fighters on October 7 remain in Gaza but that 31 are presumed dead.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met and agreed that “the release of sick, wounded, elderly and women hostages would result in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks.”
The first phase of this ceasefire would enable “a surge of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, and provide time and space to secure more enduring arrangements and sustained calm,” a White House readout of the meeting said.
Famine looms
The talks come as Israel faces increasing criticism from the US, its top ally, as conditions in Gaza deteriorate.
Harris met Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday, the same day the WHO said an aid mission at the weekend found that 10 children had died of starvation at the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals.
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, residents described finding decomposing bodies lying on the streets, which are lined with destroyed buildings.
“We want to eat and live. Take a look at our homes. How am I to blame, a single, unarmed person without any income in this impoverished country?” asked Nader Abu Shanab, pointing to the rubble with blackened hands.
American cargo planes airdropped more than 36,000 meals into Gaza on Tuesday in a joint operation with Jordan, which said French and Egyptian planes also took part.
The UN’s World Food Program said Israeli troops turned away an aid convoy at a checkpoint inside Gaza and that it was later looted “by desperate people.”