JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel and Hamas on Tuesday downplayed the chances of an early breakthrough in Gaza ceasefire talks after U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel had agreed to pause its offensive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan , if an agreement is reached to release some hostages.
The president's comments came on the eve of the primary election in Michigan, where he is under pressure from the state's large Arab-American population over his strong support of the Israeli offensive. Biden said he was briefed by his national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the status of the talks, but said his comments reflected his optimism for an agreement rather than that all remaining hurdles had been overcome.
Following Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7, Israel's air, sea and ground assault in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed large swaths of the urban landscape and displaced 80% of the battered enclave's population.
The United Nations says Israel's seal on the territory, which allows only a fraction of food and other aid, has raised alarm that famine could be imminent.
With U.N. truck deliveries of aid hampered by the lack of safe corridors, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and France carried out an airdrop of food, medical supplies and other aid to Gaza on Tuesday. On a southern Gaza beach, crates of supplies dropped by military planes floated down on parachutes as thousands of Palestinians ran across the sand to retrieve them.
But concerns are growing about increasing starvation among the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Two infants died of dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. He warned that child mortality was at risk of rising.
“Thousands of children and pregnant women in Gaza will die from dehydration and malnutrition,” he said.
According to the UN Population Fund, the Al Helal Al Emirati Maternity Hospital in the Gaza Strip's southernmost city of Rafah reported that newborns died because mothers were unable to receive care before or after birth. The number of premature births is also increasing, forcing staff to place four or five newborns in a single incubator. Most of them do not survive, it was said, without giving any figures on the number of deaths.
Now the prospect of an invasion of Rafah has sparked global concern over the fate of the approximately 1.4 million civilians trapped there.
Talks about halting the fighting have gained momentum recently and took place on Tuesday. Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been working to broker a ceasefire that would see Hamas release some of the dozens of hostages it is holding in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a six-week halt in fighting and an increase in aid deliveries Gaza.
The start of Ramadan, expected to take place around March 10, is considered the unofficial deadline for an agreement. The month is a time of increased religious observances and fasting from dawn to dusk for hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world. There have been tensions between Israelis and Palestinians during the holy month in the past.
“Ramadan is coming and the Israelis have agreed that they will not engage in activities during Ramadan to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said during an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night “. With Seth Meyers,” which was recorded on Monday.
In separate comments the same day, Biden said he hoped a ceasefire agreement could be in place by next week.
At the same time, Biden did not call for an end to the war, which Israeli authorities said was sparked when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 people.
Israeli officials said Biden's comments came as a surprise and were not in coordination with the country's leadership. A Hamas official downplayed any progress and said the group would not soften its demands.
The Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media, said Israel wanted an agreement immediately but that Hamas continued to make excessive demands. They also said Israel was insisting that female soldiers be part of the first group of hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement.
Hamas official Ahmad Abdel-Hadi noted that optimism about a deal was premature.
“The resistance is not interested in giving up any of its demands and what is being proposed does not meet its demands,” he told pan-Arab television channel Al Mayadeen.
Hamas has previously called for Israel to end the war as part of a deal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “delusion.”
At a news conference in Doha on Tuesday, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said we were optimistic about the talks, without elaborating.
A senior Egyptian official said the draft deal includes the release of up to 40 women and elderly hostages in return for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners – mostly women, minors and the elderly.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the proposed six-week pause in fighting would allow hundreds of trucks to bring urgently needed aid to Gaza every day, including to the worst-hit north.
Biden, who has staunchly supported Israel throughout the war, left the door open in his remarks to a possible Israeli ground offensive in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on the border with Egypt, where more than half of the enclave's 2.3 million people live Live people fled following Israeli evacuation orders.
Netanyahu said a ground operation in Rafah was an inevitable part of Israel's strategy to dismantle Hamas. This week, the military submitted operational plans for the offensive and evacuation plans for the civilian population there to the cabinet for approval.
Biden said he believes Israel has slowed its bombing of Rafah.
“They have to do it, and they have committed to me that they will ensure that there is an opportunity to evacuate large parts of Rafah before they go out and take out the rest of Hamas,” he said. “But it’s a process.”
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,700 people, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The count does not differentiate between fighters and civilians.
The first and only ceasefire in the war in late November resulted in the release of about 100 hostages – mostly women, children and foreigners – in exchange for about 240 Palestinians detained by Israel, as well as a brief halt in the fighting.
About 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but Israel says about a quarter of them are dead.
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Shurafa reported from Rafah in the Gaza Strip and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
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