Israel keeps up Gaza attack as cease-fire talks intensify

CAIRO — Mediators are working around the clock to hammer out a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks said, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 44 Palestinians on Thursday.

The mediators, at talks in Egypt and Qatar, are trying to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old conflict in the enclave that would include a release of hostages seized from Israel on Oct 7, 2023, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Mediators had managed to narrow some gaps on previous sticking points but differences remained, the sources said.

In Gaza, a total of 44 people were killed overnight on Thursday, according to medics.

Residents of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army has operated since October, said forces blew up clusters of houses overnight.

"The longer those talks last, the more destruction and death takes place in Gaza. Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya are being wiped out, Rafah too," said Adel, 60, a resident of Jabalia, who is now displaced in Gaza City.

A report published by international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders on Thursday said there were clear signs of "ethnic cleansing" in Israel's offensive as Palestinians were forcibly displaced and bombed.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the report but Israel previously denied carrying out ethnic cleansing.

Sources close to the mediation efforts said Hamas had pushed for a one-package deal but Israel wanted a phased one. Talks are focused on a first-phase release of hostages, dead or alive, as well as a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.

In Syria, residents said on Thursday that Israeli forces have set up a position in an abandoned Syrian army base in the village of Maariyah and prevented local farmers from accessing their fields.

The village, on the western edge of Syria's southern Daraa Province, is near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but outside of the buffer zone.

Abdel Raouf Issa, a resident of Maariyah, said the Israeli military had penetrated about 1 kilometer into the village and "is demanding that we hand over all weapons to the occupation. We told them that we have no weapons at all".

Amid the turmoil in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the leaders of Egypt, Turkiye and Iran gathered in a summit in Cairo on Thursday where they addressed regional issues.

Opening the 11th Summit of the Developing Eight Organization for Economic Cooperation, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi spoke of major regional challenges, including "the persistent Israeli war against the Palestinian people", and the vulnerable conditions in Lebanon and Syria.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in his speech stressed that countries should take concrete and practical steps to put an end to the Israeli "aggressions" against Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Pezeshkian's visit to Cairo is the first by an Iranian president in 11 years.

Agencies - Xinhua