GAZA: Israeli forces carried out new deadly bombings in Gaza on Wednesday, as international mediators prepared to propose a short-term truce to free captives and avert a humanitarian catastrophe. News of the potential breakthrough in truce talks came a day after an Israeli strike on a single Gaza residential block killed nearly 100 people and triggered international revulsion.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months been trying to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow a prisoner swap, humanitarian access and talks on a longer-term peace. Israel's Mossad spy chief David Barnea, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani held their latest round of secretive talks on Sunday and Monday in Doha.
On Wednesday, a source said that the senior officials discussed proposing to the parties a "short-term" truce of "less than a month". The proposal included the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and an increase in aid to Gaza, the source added. "US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement," the source said.
A strike on Tuesday in the northern Gaza district of Beit Lahia collapsed a building and left at least 93 dead, including a large number of children, according to the territory's civil defence agency. The US State Department described the bombing was "a horrifying incident with a horrifying result" and a spokesman said Washington had asked Israel for an explanation.
The United Nations aid coordination agency UNOCHA said the strike was only one of at least seven mass casualty incidents over the past week in the Palestinian territory. "Only two... out of 20 health service points and two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda, remain functional, although partially, hampering the delivery of life-saving health services," UNOCHA said. "Across the Gaza Strip, October has seen very limited food distribution due to severe supply shortages," it warned, adding that 1.7 million people, 80 per cent of the population, did not receive rations.
The violence continued on Wednesday. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people, including a girl and a woman, were killed in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis and two more died when a tent was hit in Deir Al Balah. Fighting also continued in Lebanon, where Israel has launched an air and ground campaign to destroy Lebanese Hezbollah, which has launched cross-border strikes and expressed solidarity with Palestinian Hamas. — AFP
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