Photo: Collected
International mediators were with Hamas negotiators in Cairo on Tuesday (5 March) for talks on a truce to pause nearly five months of fighting in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins early next week.
Envoys from the Palestinian militant group and the United States were expected to meet with Qatari and Egyptian mediators for a third day of negotiations on a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and increased aid to Gaza.
Israeli negotiators have so far stayed away from the talks, despite growing diplomatic pressure for a truce to take effect before Ramadan.
Israeli media reported that the country's negotiating team boycotted the talks after Hamas did not provide a list of living hostages.
Senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told AFP that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to blame for obstructing the talks and said it was for the United States to stop the war before Ramadan, saying the "ball is in their court".
Israel has said it believes 130 of the 250 captives taken by Hamas in the October attack that triggered the war remain in Gaza, but that 31 have been killed.
As conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory deteriorate and the spectre of famine looms, Israel has faced increasingly sharp rebukes from its top ally the United States.
Vice President Kamala Harris expressed "deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza" during talks in Washington on Monday with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz.
The same day, the World Health Organization said an aid mission to two hospitals in northern Gaza had found children dying of starvation, amid dire shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
"The lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus after the UN agency visited the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals over the weekend.
Fighting in Gaza continued, with authorities reporting dozens of Israeli air strikes near the European Hospital in Hamad, near Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli army said it was conducting targeted raids in Hamad and had captured dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who were hiding among civilians.
Khan Yunis residents described finding decomposing bodies lying in streets lined with destroyed homes and shops.
Messenger/Sumon
