Hamas has claimed that a ceasefire in Gaza is possible “within 24 to 48 hours” if Israel accepts its demands, as negotiators are set to meet in Cairo today in the hope of hammering out a new ceasefire agreement.
A delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' deputy leader in Gaza, has arrived in Cairo as negotiations there are set to resume today, according to a senior official.
The list of demands the group wants to meet includes “the return of displaced Palestinians to the northern Gaza Strip and increasing humanitarian aid,” an official said.
Hopes for a new ceasefire were rekindled after a US government official said last night that “a deal was on the table” which Israel had “more or less accepted”.
“There will be a six-week ceasefire in Gaza starting today if Hamas agrees to release the defined category of vulnerable hostages, the sick, the wounded, the elderly and women,” the Washington official said.
They added that the path to a ceasefire was “now straightforward” and that the responsibility now rested with Hamas to accept the deal.
At least 14 Palestinians, including six children, were killed in an Israeli bomb attack on a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday
Distraught Palestinians gather at the site of a bombed house in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 3
Palestinian men search for salvageable items in the rubble of a house destroyed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 3
Palestinian children walk past the rubble of the al-Bukhari Mosque in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 2
Smoke rises during an Israeli ground operation in Khan Younis on February 29
Negotiators from regional powers have been working around the clock to reach a ceasefire in Gaza by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 10.
Fighting continued in the early hours of Sunday, with Israel saying it had intensified operations in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
Residents reported heavy shelling and the advance of tanks through the city.
Israel says its nightly attacks destroyed dozens of Hamas targets through air and artillery strikes.
Israel's air force and artillery hit about 50 targets within six minutes, it said, to “intensify operational successes in the region.”
“During the attacks, troops destroyed terrorist infrastructure and eliminated Hamas terrorists operating from civilian facilities in urban areas,” it said.
Residents in the area said they were surprised by the rapid advance of Israeli tanks, which led to new skirmishes with Palestinian gunmen.
At a housing project, some families said on social media that they could not leave their homes while the tanks were on the streets.
Palestinians run towards parachutes attached to food packages dropped by US planes
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said it attacked two tanks with rockets and blew up a building where soldiers had entered.
Khan Younis has been at the center of the Israeli military offensive in recent weeks.
Around Rafah, another southern city where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge on the border with Egypt, 25 people were killed on Saturday and Sunday morning, according to authorities.
They included 11 people who died when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent near a hospital and another 14 from a family who died when an attack hit a house.
Members of Women Wage Peace in Tel Aviv, Israel, call for a ceasefire and condemn the deaths of over 100 people killed in Gaza on February 29
In response to the bloody attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The attack devastated Gaza. Gaza health authorities said much of the Hamas-controlled enclave was devastated, killing more than 30,000 people and wounding tens of thousands more.
Hamas terrorists took about 250 people hostage in their unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel on October 7. 130 of them remain in Gaza, including 31 who Israel says are dead.
It was unclear how many of the remaining hostages were considered at risk, and a source said yesterday that Israel would not send a delegation until it had a full list of hostages still alive.
On Thursday, Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces killed 118 people as they tried to reach an aid convoy near Gaza City, sparking global outrage.
Israel disputed the health ministry's death toll in the food convoy disaster, saying most victims were trampled or run over.
A day later, Mr Biden announced plans for the US airdrop on Saturday, which also involved Jordanian forces.
U.S. military planes dropped 38,000 meals over Gaza, far from enough to provide aid to the territory's 2.2 million residents. U.S. authorities said it was the first of a sustained effort.
People cry as they mourn while receiving the bodies of victims of an Israeli attack March 2
While Israel denies restricting humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip, no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Program warned.
“If nothing changes, there is a risk of famine in the north of the Gaza Strip,” WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council today, while his UN Humanitarian Office OCHA colleague Ramesh Rajasingham told a “ “almost inevitable” widespread famine.
Late last month, Rajasingham said “at least 576,000 people in Gaza – a quarter of the population” were “one step away from famine, with one in six children under the age of two suffering from acute malnutrition in northern Gaza.” Waste'.