GAZA: American and Israeli negotiators are expected in Cairo in a renewed push for a ceasefire-captive deal in a war that reaches the half-year mark.
The attempt comes after Israel made a rare admission of wrongdoing during its war in Gaza. The military said it was firing two officers for the killing of seven aid workers -- most of them Westerners -- in the territory where humanitarians say famine is imminent.
Biden urged an "immediate ceasefire" and for the first time hinted at conditioning American support for Israel on curtailing the killing of civilians and improving humanitarian conditions.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack from Gaza resulting in the death of 1,170 people in southern Israel, Israeli figures show.
Israel has relentlessly bombarded the territory by air, land and sea, killing at least 33,137 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
The latest toll includes at least 46 deaths over the previous 24 hours, the ministry said on Saturday.
Israel's army rejected accusations, made in independent Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972, that it has used artificial intelligence to identify targets in Gaza.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the reports "deeply troubling".
Ahead of the weekend talks, Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar urging them to secure commitments from Hamas to "agree to and abide by a deal", a senior administration official said.
Stop-start talks have made no headway since a week-long truce in November saw the exchange of some captives for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.
The White House confirmed negotiations would occur this weekend in Cairo. A Hamas statement Saturday said its delegation would head to Cairo on Sunday.
Biden's Thursday call with Netanyahu included discussions on "empowering his negotiators" to reach a deal, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Biden is under pressure over the billions of dollars in US military aid to Israel which, so far, Washington has not leveraged despite increasingly critical words about Israel's conduct in the war.
Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel has defended its efforts and blamed shortages on groups' inability to distribute aid once it gets in.
The Israeli military announced it was firing two officers after finding a series of errors led to the drone strikes that killed the WCK workers as they drove south after supervising the unloading of food aid that arrived on a new sea corridor from Cyprus. — AFP
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