Gaza truce talks in Cairo as Israel kills 90 Palestinians in a day

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Egypt on Sunday hosted envoys for talks on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the latest diplomatic effort as Gaza officials reported more deadly bombardment in the nearly five-month-old war.

A senior Hamas official told AFP that a delegation from the Palestinian group would discuss with mediators a proposal for a six-week truce, after a US official said Israel had broadly accepted its terms.

Envoys from the United States, Qatar and Hamas have arrived in Cairo, Egyptian state-linked media reported, as all sides have been scrambling to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins on March 10 or 11.

The Hamas official said that if Israel were to meet its demands — which have included a military withdrawal from Gaza and stepped-up humanitarian aid — this would “pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours”.

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said at least 90 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, including 14 family members whose house in the southern Rafah refugee camp had been hit.

Two of them, twin babies Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza, were buried on Sunday, an AFP photographer said, as their mother Rania was crying in agony.

Relative Shehda Abu Anza said there were “only civilians” at the family home.

“All of them were sleeping when suddenly a missile hit and destroyed the whole house,” he told AFP while family members and other residents searched the rubble with their bare hands for bodies and also to salvage food.

In a sign of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the narrow coastal territory, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said at least 16 children had died of malnutrition in recent days as “famine spreads” in the north.