TRANSCRIPT
Israel has reportedly boycotted Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo after Hamas rejected its demand for a complete list of hostages still alive.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for the talks, which had been billed as the final hurdle before a six-week pause in fighting.
But Israeli newspaper Ynet reports that no Israeli delegation had been dispatched, quoting unidentified Israeli officials who said Hamas had refused to give clear answers.
United States officials had earlier said the proposal was approved by Israel and awaiting endorsement from Hamas.
Despite the Israel report, Turkiye's Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, who is involved in the ceasefire talks, says he believes they can still reach an agreement before the start of Ramadan.
“I can say that our current talks, especially the ongoing ceasefire talks between the parties on the Gaza issue, are continuing through mediators. While my relevant colleagues were here, we talked in depth with them. In other words, what are the parts that are failing? What are the parts that are not understood? On which issues is progress made, and which ones it isn't? These are details, I won't bother you with them, but I want to express this, in general, there is a very serious desire and effort to reach a ceasefire before Ramadan.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it has intensified operations in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) has released a video showing strikes on dozens of Hamas targets in a blitz of air and artillery strikes, though the video has not yet been independently verified.
Israel claims its troops eliminated more than 100 militants in the Gaza Strip and arrested dozens more, adding that hundreds of rocket launch pits and launchers were also destroyed.
The Israeli military has also released the results of its review into last week's incident when food trucks that had entered Gaza were surrounded by local people, desperate for food.
Gazan authorities say 118 people were killed and 760 injured.
Israel's chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, says no strike was carried out by the IDF towards the aid convoy.
He says the majority of Palestinians were killed or injured as a result of the stampede.
“From the information we gathered from the commanders and forces on the ground, our initial review has indicated that following the warning shots fired to disperse the stampede, and after our forces had started retreating, several looters approached our forces and posed an immediate threat to them. According to the initial review, the soldiers responded towards several individuals.”
Rear Admiral Hagari says proactive measures have been taken to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza following that incident.
A joint humanitarian assistance airdrop was carried out in Gaza on Saturday in collaboration with US Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
A delegation from the European parliament has visited Egypt, where they checked aid in warehouses due to be sent to Gaza.
Udo Bulmann, the Chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, also saw the warehouse where aid items for Gaza were stored after being rejected by Israel.
“We’ve had a look at the warehouse and especially on this department within the warehouse where the rejected objects are stored, and we saw incredible things. We saw the rejection of most dearly needed medical devices, we saw the rejection of tents and toilets and refrigerators which are really needed to preserve medicine in order to reach the patients, and we appeal to everybody to let in what is needed to be let in.”
He says a cceasefire is desperately needed to prevent a new wave of deaths.
“A ceasefire is the only way in our eyes, in our views, to do the most urgent thing now, to prevent thousands of people from being killed, innocent lives from being killed, and to provide humanitarian aid which is really needed. So that is what we bring in our messages and what we got to know and let me please underscore that we are really really grateful to the Egyptian people for their support in a situation of absolute tragedy, of absolute crisis. We’ve seen your part in humanitarian aid, we’ve seen the logistics activities here in the warehouses and the medical support in your hospitals, we’re grateful for that and I’m pretty sure the European Union will do its very best to support you on that.”
The World Health Organisation has delivered medical aid and fuel to the Al Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.
Doctors say the radiology and kidney dialysis department can only be run on certain days of the week due to a lack of resources.
The WHO's coordination officer for Gaza, Abdelnasir Soboh, say much more aid is needed.
“Yesterday, Al Shifa hospital received more than 600 patients here and they have a shortage of fuel, they have a shortage of medicine, so today’s delivery of WHO would help a lot Shifa Hospital to deliver their services and to expand, even, their services.”
The conflict began when the Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel in early October ((7th)), killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing around 250 hostages.
Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the war has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians.
Around 80 per cent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, and a quarter of the population faces starvation.
