The ceasefire talks, which began on Sunday in Cairo, are billed as a final hurdle to establish the first extended ceasefire of the five-month-old war, in time for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which is expected to begin on Sunday.
US vice president calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and other top US officials in Washington on Monday as the White House ramps up pressure on Israel to protect civilians in Gaza during its war with Hamas. Gantz, a political rival to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will also meet with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Harris on Sunday said conditions in Gaza were inhumane and amounted to a "humanitarian catastrophe", while calling for an immediate ceasefire.
"Talks in Cairo continue for the second day regardless of whether the occupation's delegation is present in Egypt," a Hamas official said.
Two Egyptian security sources said mediators were in touch with the Israelis, allowing negotiations to continue despite the delegation's absence.
A Palestinian source close to the talks said the discussions remained "uneasy", with Israel sticking to its demand for only a temporary truce to free hostages, while Hamas was seeking assurances war would not start up again.
Late Monday, officials from Hamas, Egypt and Qatar began a second round of talks for the day, a Hamas source said.
Washington, which is both Israel's closest ally and a sponsor of the talks, says a deal remains close, with an agreement already effectively approved by Israel and only awaiting acceptance from Hamas.
US Vice President Kamala Harris signalled an apparent hardening of tone from President Joe Biden's administration towards its ally, using unusually forceful language to urge Israel to alleviate the "inhumane" conditions.
Hamas unsure how many
hostages are alive in Gaza
A Hamas leader said Monday that the Palestinian movement doesn't know how many of the Israeli captives are still alive. "Of the prisoners, we don't know exactly who among them are alive or dead, killed because of strikes or hunger," Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, told AFP from Cairo. "There are prisoners held by numerous groups in multiple places" across the Palestinian territory, he said. Naim, a former health minister in Gaza, said that "a ceasefire is necessary so that we can carry out (checks) on this issue... regarding the names, numbers and their status whether alive or dead."
The proposal being discussed is for a truce of about 40 days, during which Hamas would release around 40 of the more than 100 hostages they are still holding in return for some 400 detainees held in Israeli jails.
Israeli troops would pull back from some areas, more humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza and residents would be permitted to return to abandoned homes.
Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is eradicated. Hamas says it will not free all its hostages without a deal that ends the war.
The Egyptian security sources said mediators were trying to bridge the gap with guarantees to Hamas on future peace talks, and to Israel on the safety of hostages.
A Ramadan truce could head off a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, the last town on the southern edge of Gaza, where more than half the enclave's population are now sheltering.
Residents have described heavy fighting since Saturday just north of Rafah in Khan Younis, where Israeli forces have released video showing buildings obliterated in airstrikes.
In Rafah, airstrikes have been killing families in their homes nightly.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an Israeli strike had killed and wounded displaced Palestinians sheltering in tents in front of the Al Emirati field hospital on Saturday, also killing two health workers.
Israel carries out biggest Ramallah raid in years
Israeli forces raided the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank overnight, killing a 16-year-old in a refugee camp during their biggest such operation into the city in years, Palestinian sources said yesterday. The Israeli military said security forces had conducted a counter-terrorism operation in the camp during which a riot broke out, with rocks and petrol bombs thrown at soldiers, who responded with live fire. In a separate West Bank raid, Israeli forces killed a 10-year-old boy and in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. Violence has surged across the West Bank in parallel to the Gaza war, with at least 400 Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers.
