Tel Aviv/Cairo, 4 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) – Israel did not send a negotiating team to Cairo on Sunday for the latest talks aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by militants there for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

 

Israel is demanding a list of the hostages still held by Hamas before it agrees to participate in the negotiations that the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying to broker for weeks.

 

Israeli officials say they also wants clarity on how many Palestinian prisoners Hamas wants to see freed for every hostage released.

 

According to recent reports in the international media, a draft deal that has been under discussion in recent days could see 40 hostages exchanged for 400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

 

The US has said it would like to see a six-week pause in the fighting, which would also allow for more aid to get into the coastal territory.

 

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking on Sunday night, said that he had not yet received satisfactory responses to Israeli concerns.

 

He rejected "the international pressure to end the war" before Israel had achieved all its goals. With or without a deal, "we will fight until total victory," Netanyahu said.

 

Unlike Israel, a team from the Palestinian extremist Hamas movement had arrived in Cairo on Sunday, Egypt's state-linked Al Qahera News said.

 

Israel has been bombarding Gaza for months, since Hamas militants launched unprecedented bloody attacks on Israel on October 7 that included massacres of civilians.

 

So far, at least 30,320 people are said to have been killed and more than 71,500 injured in Gaza since the war began, unleashed by the October attacks when gunmen from Hamas and other extremist groups killed 1,200 people and abducted approximately 240 more.

 

In November, Egypt, Qatar and the US brokered a temporary ceasefire deal agreed by Israel and Hamas that also facilitated hostage-for-prisoner swaps.

 

Israel is aiming to eliminate Hamas from the strip and has caused extensive damage with its ground and air offensive, leading to major international criticism.

 

Many Gazans have fled the attacks to Rafah, the southern-most city in the coastal strip, where some 1.5 million people are sheltering from the bombardment.

 

Most are refugees who have fled fighting in other parts of the territory and are housed in tents without adequate sanitary facilities or health care.

 

US Vice President Kamala Harris urged the "immediate" implementation of a six-week truce to allow more aid to flow into Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

 

"Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire, for at least the next six weeks, which is currently on the table," Harris said in a speech on Sunday.

 

Gaza was in the midst of a "humanitarian catastrophe" and innocent Palestinians were "starving," Harris said.

 

She demanded Israel do more to "significantly" increase aid deliveries to Gaza, saying there were "no excuses."

 

"They must open new border crossings. They must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid. They must ensure humanitarian convoys are not targeted and restore basic services and order in Gaza so more food, water and fuel can reach those in need."

 

Earlier, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) responded with outrage to reports of the deaths of several Palestinians in a suspected Israeli airstrike on Rafah.

 

"Reports that tents sheltering displaced people in Rafah were bombed - reportedly killing 11 people and injuring 50, including children - are outrageous and unspeakable," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

 

His comments came in response to a statement by the Gaza health authority, controlled by Islamist Hamas, saying at least 11 Palestinians were killed and 50 were injured in the suspected Israeli attack. The information could not be independently verified.

 

Two health workers were among those killed, according to the WHO chief.

 

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said late Sunday that a Hamas member responsible for recruiting fighters had been killed in an aerial strike in the central Gaza Strip.

 

Mahmoud Muhammad Abd Khad was also involved in raising funds for terrorism and supporting Hamas' military activities, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.