CAIRO: Israeli and Hamas officials said on Monday that gaps between the two sides over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved as Israeli strikes killed at least 58 people during the last 24 hours in Gaza.
A fresh bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the ongoing bombardment campaign and release Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has yet been reported.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said while some sticking points had been resolved, the identity of some of the Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in return for hostages had yet to be agreed, along with the precise deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza.
His remarks corresponded with comments by the Israeli diaspora minister, Amichai Chikli, who said both issues were still being negotiated. Nonetheless, he said, the sides were far closer to reaching agreement than they have been for months.
“This ceasefire can last six months or it can last 10 years, it depends on the dynamics that will form on the ground,” Chikli told Israel’s Kan radio.
Much hinged on what powers would be running and rehabilitating Gaza once fighting stopped, he said.
The duration of the ceasefire has been a fundamental sticking point throughout several rounds of failed negotiations. Hamas wants an end to the war, while Israel wants an end to Hamas’ rule of Gaza first.
“The issue of ending the war completely hasn’t yet been resolved,” said the Palestinian official.
Gaza Death Toll
Since Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, 2023, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment campaign in Gaza killing at least 45,317 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the territory’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Over 107,713 people have been wounded in the ongoing Israeli bombardment campaign, according to the latest daily update by the Health Ministry in the besieged territory.
The health ministry said 58 people were killed and 86 wounded during the last 24 hour-reporting period.
On Monday, Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people.
One of the strikes overnight and into Monday hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children, the Nasser Hospital reported.
Hospital records show another six were killed in a strike on people securing an aid convoy and another two were killed in a strike on a car in Muwasi. One person was killed in a separate strike in the area.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah said three bodies arrived after an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp.
Apocalyptic Nightmare
Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi in the occupied Palestinian territory told Al Jazeera the figure demonstrates how the resources going in are just a drop in the ocean.
“This is not aid, this is cruelty. And when those supplies do get in, they are followed by shelling and destruction of the very places people are sheltering,” she said from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
