US President Joe Biden urged Hamas on Tuesday to accept a Gaza ceasefire accord by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as the Palestinian militant organization cautioned that talks on a truce and captive release could not continue indefinitely.
As famine threatens Gazans, US and Jordanian planes airdrop food aid into the beleaguered enclave, which is home to 2.4 million people, in cooperation with Egypt and France.
US Vice President Kamala Harris voiced “deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza,” while the World Health Organization (WHO) reported children dying of malnutrition in two northern Gaza hospitals.
Envoys from Hamas and the US have been meeting with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo to discuss a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian inmates, and the flow of aid to Gaza.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is connected to the country’s intelligence agencies, reported that the negotiations would continue for a fourth day on Wednesday.
Biden warned Hamas to agree to a Gaza truce by Ramadan, which begins early next week, after his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, urged them to accept a “immediate ceasefire”.
“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” the US president told reporters in Maryland.
“There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan — if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”
He did not clarify, but the US asked Israel last week to allow Muslims to pray at Jerusalem’s controversial Al-Aqsa mosque compound during Ramadan.
The Israeli administration stated that it would allow Muslim worshippers to visit Al-Aqsa during Ramadan “in similar numbers to those in previous years.”
Hostage list
So far, Israel has not participated in the Cairo talks, with Israeli media saying that its delegation boycotted them when Hamas refused to give a list of living hostages.
However, senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told AFP that specifics about the inmates “were not mentioned in any documents or proposals circulated during the negotiation process”.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, stated that his organization would “not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely.”
Israel says 130 of the 250 hostages abducted by Hamas fighters in the unprecedented October 7 attack that sparked the war remain in Gaza, but 31 have been killed.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met and agreed that “the release of sick, wounded, elderly, and female hostages would result in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza lasting at least six weeks.”
The first phase of the ceasefire would allow for “a surge of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, as well as time and space to secure more enduring arrangements and sustained calm,” according to a White House meeting readout.
Famine looms
As conditions in the besieged Palestinian region deteriorate and starvation approaches, Israel’s biggest backer, the United States, is becoming increasingly critical.
Harris met with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday, the same day the WHO reported that 10 children died of malnutrition at the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals during a weekend humanitarian operation.
People in Khan Yunis, Gaza’s biggest city in the south, reported seeing decaying remains on streets lined with wrecked buildings.
“We want to eat and survive. Take a look around our homes. How am I to blame, as a solitary, unarmed person with little income in this impoverished country? Nader Abu Shanab pointed to the ruins with burned hands.
American cargo planes dropped more than 36,000 meals into Gaza on Tuesday as part of a cooperative operation with Jordan, which also included French and Egyptian planes.
According to the UN World Food Programme, Israeli troops turned away an assistance caravan at a crossing leading to northern Gaza, which was then plundered “by desperate people”.
The Hamas onslaught on southern Israel on October 7 killed around 1,160 people, the majority of whom were civilians, according to an AFP calculation based on official Israeli numbers.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed around 30,600 individuals, the majority of them are women and children.
UN tensions
Tensions have risen between Israel and the United Nations over the handling of sexual assault charges by Hamas terrorists during the October raid.
On Monday, the United Nations produced a report stating that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that rapes had occurred and that hostages brought to Gaza had also been raped.
Israel has accused the United Nations of taking too long to respond to the charges, recalling its UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan shortly after the report was published.
The battle has caused violence throughout the region, with Israeli soldiers and Lebanon’s Hezbollah organization exchanging fire almost every day.
On Tuesday, the US Navy claimed to have shot down three drones and a missile fired at one of its destroyers by Huthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea.
According to a statement from US Central Command, “one anti-ship ballistic missile and three one-way attack unmanned aerial systems” were shot down, however the USS Carney was not harmed.
Iran-backed Huthis have been assaulting cargo in the Red Sea for months, claiming to be targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Anger over Israel’s Gaza war has spread throughout the Middle East, sparking bloodshed between Iran-backed factions in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.