Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposedย Gazaย cease-fire and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday, a day before talks to reach an agreement were to resume in Egypt.
International mediators have been working for weeks to broker a deal to pause the fighting before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins around March 10. A deal would likely allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians in northern Gaza who aid officials worry are underย threat of famine.
The Israelis โhave more or less acceptedโ the proposal, which includes the six-week cease-fire as well as the release by Hamas of hostages considered vulnerable, which includes the sick, the wounded, the elderly and women, said the official.
โRight now, the ball is in the court of Hamas and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can,โ the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House to brief reporters.
Officials from Israel and from Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A senior Egyptian official said mediators Egypt and Qatar are expected to receive a response from Hamas during the Cairo talks scheduled to start Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not publicly authorized to discuss the talks.
There is increasing criticism over the hundreds of thousandsย struggling to surviveย in northern Gaza, which has borne the brunt ofย the conflict that began when the Hamas militant groupย attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing around 250 hostages.
U.S. military planes began theย first airdrops of thousands of mealsย into Gaza, and the militaries of Jordan and Egypt said they also conducted airdrops. Aid groups say airdrops should be only a last resort and instead urge the opening of other crossings into Gaza and the removal of obstacles at the few that are open.
The European Unionโs diplomatic service said many of the hundreds of Palestinians killed or wounded inย the chaos surrounding an aid convoyย on Thursday were hit by Israeli army fire and urged an international investigation. It said responsibility for the crisis lay with โrestrictions imposed by the Israeli army and obstructions by violent extremist(s) to the supply of humanitarian aid.โ
Gazaโs Health Ministry raised the death toll from Thursdayโs violence to 118 after two more bodies were recovered Saturday. It said the wounded remained at 760.
Israelโs chief military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel organized Thursdayโs convoy, โand claims that we attacked the convoy intentionally and that we harmed people intentionally are baseless.โ
Residents in northern Gaza say they are searching rubble and garbage for anything to feed their children, who barely eat one meal a day. Many families have begun mixing animal and bird food with grain to bake bread.
At least 10 children have starved to death, according to hospital records in Gaza, the World Health Organization said.
Gazaโsย Health Ministry said the Palestinian death tollย from the war has climbed to 30,320. The ministry doesnโt differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures, but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
In the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gazaโs people now seek refuge, an Israeli airstrike struck tents outside the Emirati hospital, killing 11 people and wounding about 50, including health workers, the Health Ministry said. Israelโs military said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants.
Israelโsย air, sea and ground offensiveย has reduced much ofย densely populated northern Gaza to rubble. The military told Palestinians to move south, but as many as 300,000 people are believed to have remained.
Roughly one in six children under 2 in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting, โthe worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world,โ Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, said this week. โIf nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza.โ
People haveย overwhelmed trucksย and grabbed what they can, Skau said, forcing the WFP to suspend deliveries to the north.
In the violence Thursday, people rushed about 30 trucks bringing a predawn delivery to the north. Palestinians said nearby Israeli troops shot into the crowds. Israel said they fired warning shots toward the crowd and insisted many of the dead were trampled. Doctors at hospitals in Gaza and a U.N. team that visited a hospital said large numbers of the wounded had been shot.
Ahmed Abdel Karim, being treated for gunshot wounds in his feet, said he had spent two days waiting for aid trucks to arrive.
โEveryone attacked and advanced on these trucks. Because of the large number, I could not get flour,โ he said.
Radwan Abdel-Hai, a father of four young children, heard a rumor late Wednesday that an aid convoy was on its way. He and five others took a donkey cart and found a โsea of peopleโ waiting.
โTanks started firing at us,โ he said. โAs I ran back, I heard tank shells and gunfire. I heard people screaming. I saw people falling to the ground, some motionless.โ Many were shot in the back, he said.
Soad Abu Hussein, a widow and mother of five, said more than 5,000 people โ mostly women and children โ living with her in a school at the Jabaliya refugee camp have not received aid for more than four weeks. A group of people went to the shore to fish, but three were killed and two were wounded by gunfire from Israeli ships, she said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mansour Hamed, a 32-year-old former aid worker living with more than 50 relatives in a Gaza City house, said some are eating tree leaves and animal food. It has become normal to find a child emerging from the rubble with a rotten piece of bread, he said.
Acknowledging the extreme need for food, U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. wouldย look for other waysย of delivery โincluding possibly a marine corridor.โ
Also Saturday, Israel said three soldiers were killed and 14 injured Friday when they inadvertently triggered explosives in a booby-trapped building outside Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.