No breakthrough at Cairo meeting on Gaza ceasefire

Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough on Tuesday, Egyptian officials said, less than a week before the start of the Holy Month of Ramadan, the informal deadline for a deal.

US President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday of a “very dangerous” situation if Israel and Hamas fail to reach a Gaza ceasefire by Ramadan.

“If we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous,” Biden told reporters, adding that there were “no excuses” for Israel not to allow more relief supplies into the territory.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker an agreement in which Hamas would release up to 40 hostages in return for a six-week cease-fire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and an influx of aid to the isolated territory.

Two Egyptian officials said the latest round of discussions ended on Tuesday.

They said Hamas presented a proposal that mediators would discuss with Israel in the coming days. One of the officials said mediators will meet with the Hamas delegation, which didn’t leave Cairo on Wednesday.

US officials have said they are skeptical Hamas actually wants a deal because the group has balked at a number of what the US and others believe are legitimate requests, including giving the names of hostages to be released.

Badly damaged buildings in Gaza after airstrkes.

“It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

An exchange of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages in Gaza can only happen after a ceasefire, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Tuesday,

Blinken said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “unacceptable and unsustainable.”

“Israel has to maximise every possible means, every possible method, of getting assistance to people who need it,” he said, calling for more aid to be let in and ensuring it gets delivered.

Jihad Taha, a Hamas spokesperson, said the negotiations were ongoing but “the ball is in the Israeli court.”

He said Israel had thus far refused Hamas’ demands for people who fled northern Gaza to be allowed to return and for guarantees of a long-term cease-fire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 17 people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said.

Some bodies of the Palestinian victims being taken for burial in Gaza. Picture used for illustrative purposes

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 30,631 people have been killed during the war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in the territory.

A ministry statement said there were 97 deaths over the past 24 hours, while another 72,043 people have been wounded since the war broke out on October 7.

UAE-EGYPT AIRDROP AID: The Joint Operations Command of the Ministry of Defence has announced the completion of the second airdrop of humanitarian and relief aid by the UAE Air Force and the Egyptian Air Force in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of the “Birds of Goodness” operation.

The operation aims to alleviate the suffering of the war-ravaged Palestinian people.

Joint teams from both countries carried out the operation using three aircraft carrying about 42 tonnes of food and medical aid, bringing the total   to 78 tonnes since the operation was launched.

The United States and Jordan also carried out a new air drop of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s Palestinians on Tuesday, parachuting in more than 36,800 meals, the US military said.

The UAE aims to alleviate the suffering of the war-ravaged Palestinian people.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, US President Joe Biden said: “The United States is committed to pulling out every stop to get more aid to those in Gaza who desperately need it. We won’t stand by. We won’t let up.”

PATIENTS’ EVACUATION: An estimated 8,000 patients need evacuating out of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, voicing frustration that few have so far been transferred outside the besieged territory.

The WHO said moving such patients out of Gaza would relieve some of the strain on the medics and hospitals that are struggling to keep functioning in a war zone.

“We estimate that 8,000 Gazans need to be referred outside Gaza,” Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, told a press briefing in Geneva via video-link from Jerusalem.

Of those, an estimated 6,000 are related to the conflict, including patients with multiple trauma injuries, burns and amputations, he said.

An estimated 8,000 patients need evacuating out of the Gaza Strip.

The other 2,000 are regular patients, he said.

Richard Peeperkorn also said that one-in-six children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.

“This was in January. So the situation is likely to be greater today,” Peeperkorn added, referring to when the data was recorded.

The United Nations on Tuesday called on the international community to “flood” Gaza with aid amid reports that children are dying of starvation in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Agencies