Gaza truce chances slim as talks deadlocked

CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM — Prospects for a Gaza cease-fire appeared slim on Sunday as Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the conflict in exchange for the freeing of hostages, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly ruled it out.

The two sides blamed each other for the impasse.

In their second day of truce talks in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, Hamas negotiators maintained their stance that any truce agreement must end the conflict, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli officials have not traveled to Cairo to take part in indirect diplomacy, but on Sunday Netanyahu reiterated Israel's aim since the start of the conflict nearly seven months ago: to disarm and dismantle the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for good or else endanger Israel's future security.

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday said Netanyahu was sabotaging efforts by mediators involved in truce talks.

The Israeli cabinet approved the shutdown of the Al Jazeera channel and office in the country on Sunday.

Under the decision, Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English operations in Israel could be banned for an initial period of 45 days, with the possibility of indefinite renewal.

As the latest talks were underway, residents and health officials said Israeli planes and tanks continued to pound areas across the Palestinian enclave overnight, killing and wounding several people.

The conflict began after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry on Sunday. The bombardment has devastated much of the coastal enclave and caused a humanitarian crisis.

Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding Netanyahu accept a cease-fire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining hostages brought home.

UN's famine warning

The United Nations has warned of a "full-blown famine" in northern Gaza. "There is famine, full-blown famine in the north and it's moving its way south," Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme, said in an interview whose excerpts were published on Friday.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that the availability of food in the Gaza Strip had slightly improved in the besieged Palestinian territory, which is home to 2.4 million people.

The United Nations says more than 70 percent of Gaza's residential buildings have been completely or partly destroyed, and rebuilding will require an effort unseen since the aftermath of World War II.

US President Joe Biden has come under mounting domestic pressure to leverage more concessions from Netanyahu's government over its conduct in the conflict.

A letter signed by 88 members of Congress from Biden's Democratic Party expressed serious concern over Israel's "deliberate withholding" of aid for Palestinian civilians and urged Biden to consider halting arms sales unless Israel's conduct changes.

The prospect of an assault on Rafah has sparked deepening international concern.

The senior Hamas official on Saturday said Israel would bear "full responsibility for insisting on entering Rafah instead of ceasing the aggression".

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday warned that "a full-scale military operation in Rafah… could lead to a bloodbath".

The conflict in Gaza has also triggered a surge in violence in the already restive occupied West Bank, where Israel said on Saturday its troops killed five Palestinian "terrorists" during a 12-hour siege near Tulkarem.

Meanwhile, student protests against the conflict have erupted in Europe and North America, with demonstrators gathering on at least 40 US university campuses since mid-April.

Agencies - Xinhua