Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Talks Underway In Egypt
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/GAZA CITY/CAIRO (Worthy News) – As fierce fighting continued in Gaza Sunday, delegates of the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, deemed terrorists by the West, were in Cairo on Sunday for talks on a ceasefire with Israel, their sworn enemy, sources said.
The talks came as time for a breakthrough was running out ahead of Ramadan, seen as a holy month by Muslims.
Adding to the difficulties were reports that Israel may stay away from the talks in Cairo unless Hamas presented a complete list of hostages who are still alive. A Palestinian source said that Hamas had so far rejected that demand.
On October 7, Hamas killed some 1,200 people while taking about 250 others hostage, Israeli authorities said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday demanded that Hamas agree to an immediate six-week ceasefire.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,” Harris said at an event in Selma, in the U.S. state of Alabama. “There is a deal on the table, and as we have said, Hamas needs to agree to that deal. Let’s get a ceasefire.”
Yet she also urged Israel to do more to boost aid deliveries into Gaza, where she said innocent people were suffering a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
INTERNATIONAL MEDIATORS
Her remarks came as Qatari and U.S. mediators also arrived in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, Worthy News monitored Sunday.
Earlier talks involving Israeli negotiators reportedly occurred in the Qatari city of Doha on Saturday. Hamas was due to respond on Sunday or Monday as time ran out before the unofficial deadline of 10 or 11 March, when Ramadan starts.
The month of fasting is often accompanied by an uptick in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even in quieter years, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Negotiations were due to start as the situation in Gaza became more desperate for civilians who Israel said were used by Hamas as human shields.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said some 90 people were killed in “Israeli airstrikes” in the last 24 hours, including twin babies Baeem and Wissam Abu Anza. They were buried on Sunday as their mother, Rania, wept, witnesses said.
A relative, Shehada Abu Anza, claimed “only civilians” were in the house when it was bombed, killing 14 members of one family. “All of them were sleeping when suddenly a missile hit and destroyed the whole house,” he said.
Reporters said he spoke as residents searched the rubble with their bare hands for bodies and also to salvage food.
RAFAH AIRSTRIKES
Residents said airstrikes hit Rafah, the strip’s southernmost town, which Palestinian authorities said had been one of the last places of relative safety for civilians fleeing the fighting.
Strikes also hit Khan Younis, where Israeli forces are bogged down in ground battles with Hamas and other Palestinian groups, authorities said.
The Hamas media office also reported intense tank shelling in the northern half of Gaza.
A Hamas official told reporters that if Israel were to meet its demands – which include a complete military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and stepped-up humanitarian aid – this would “pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours”.
Israel made clear that a complete Israeli military withdrawal wouldn’t be acceptable as it seeks to destroy Hamas, which it blames for the famine and other suffering reported in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Sunday that 16 children had died from malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya. Additionally, the United Nations estimated that about a quarter of the 2.3 million population is “one step away from famine.”
With suffering increasing, the United States and Jordan are among nations dropping airdropping aid, despite criticism from humanitarian aid groups that the focus should be on goods delivered by land.
CHILDREN DYING
The children are among the more than 30,000 Palestinians that the Hamas Health Ministry said have died in Gaza, though it doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
On Sunday, local media aired footage of screaming Palestinian children running toward food parcels that drifted on black parachutes onto the strip’s Mediterranean coastline.
The suffering of children came as fierce fighting further escalated on Sunday.
The Israeli military said it had hit about 50 targets, including “underground terrorist infrastructure.”
Israel suggested that all the hardships endured by Palestinians in Gaza have been caused by Hamas, which seeks the destruction of the Jewish nation.
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