Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Cairo as heavy fighting rages

Mediators in Cairo made a renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire, but differences remained as fighting raged on Sunday between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory gripped by desperate food shortages.

Witnesses told AFP that an Israeli strike hit an aid truck in central Gaza, killing several people, but the military denied the truck carried relief.

Envoys from the United States, Qatar and Hamas arrived in Cairo, Egyptian state-linked media reported Sunday, the latest effort towards a six-week truce, stepped-up aid deliveries and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

But sticking points remained, including a Hamas demand that Israeli forces entirely withdraw from the Gaza Strip after almost five months of devastating war.

And Israel, which has so far announced no plans to join the Egypt talks, has demanded Hamas provide it with a list of all 130 remaining captives, including more than 30 who are feared dead.

Despite the latest push to halt the fighting sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, there was no letup in Israeli bombing and urban combat in Gaza.

Late Sunday an AFP correspondent reported several air strikes in southern Gaza's Rafah and Khan Yunis.

Earlier, 90 Palestinians were killed within 24 hours, said the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry, which put the war's overall death toll at 30,410, mostly women and children.

Mediators have been scrambling to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins in around one week.

Washington regards Hamas as a "terrorist" organisation, and in previous talks Egyptian officials have acted as intermediaries. A US official, speaking to reporters late Saturday, had said "there's a framework deal" for a ceasefire which could start "today if Hamas agrees to release" elderly, women and ill hostages.

"The Israelis have more or less accepted it," the administration official said.

A Hamas official said that if Israel were to meet its demands, this would "pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours".

Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, told Qatar's Al-Araby TV that the group insisted on a complete, rather than "temporary", ceasefire and on "ending the aggression against our people".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected pulling troops out of Gaza before Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.

The Hamas official also said the group would demand "the entry of at least 400 to 500 trucks per day" carrying food, medicine and fuel.

Netanyahu has faced mounting calls to secure the release of the hostages, from their desperate families and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

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