GAZA: Talks were expected to resume on Saturday in Egypt aimed at halting months of war in Gaza between Palestinian groups and Israel that have triggered widening protests around the world.
Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been waiting for the Palestinians to respond to a proposal that, according to details released by Britain, would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange captives for Palestinian prisoners.
"All delegations have now arrived in Egypt, and at one o'clock, the first round of negotiations will begin with the presence of all Qatari, Egyptian, and even American delegations," a senior Palestinian Hamas official said.
Months of negotiations stalled in part on Palestinians' demand for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated vows to crush the groups' remaining fighters in Rafah, along the Egyptian border in Gaza's far south.
The prospect of a Rafah invasion, threatened for three months alongside stop-start truce talks, has sparked intensifying global alarm.
After a meeting in Cairo about a week ago, the Hamas delegation returned to Qatar to discuss the truce proposal.
The war broke out after unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, according to a tally of Israeli official figures.
Vowing to destroy the Palestinian groups, Israel has carried out a retaliatory campaign of bombardment and fighting on the ground that has killed at least 34,654 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
Gaza's Civil Defence agency and hospitals reported several more deaths from strikes in Gaza's north, centre, and in Rafah.
The United Nations says more than 70 percent of Gaza's residential buildings have been completely or partly destroyed, and rebuilding will require an effort unseen since World War II.
The World Health Organization says 1.2 million people, half of Gaza's population, have sought refuge in Rafah. Aid groups say an invasion would only add to an existing humanitarian catastrophe. On Friday WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep concern "that a full-scale military operation in Rafah, Gaza, could lead to a bloodbath."
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said a military operation in Rafah could "strike a disastrous blow" to agencies struggling to provide aid.
Protesters in Israel have also accused Netanyahu of seeking to prolong the war. The prime minister, on trial for corruption charges he denies, leads a coalition which includes religious and ultra-nationalist parties. Demonstrators have regularly taken to Israeli streets demanding the government reach a deal to bring home the captives. — AFP
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