GAZA: Hamas representatives will visit Cairo on Saturday for talks on a possible ceasefire in Gaza, an official in the Palestinian group said on Friday.
French news agency AFP cited a Hamas official as saying that a Hamas delegation will go to Cairo Saturday for several meetings with Egyptian officials to discuss ideas for a ceasefire and a prisoner accord in the Gaza Strip.
The official told AFP on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Trump wants Gaza ceasefire before inauguration: Report
US-based media outlet Axios cited US Senator Lindsey Graham as saying that President-elect Donald Trump wants to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza before he takes office.
Graham told Axios that Trump was “more determined than ever to support a ceasefire that includes a hostage agreement”.
The new development comes two days after a ceasefire went into effect between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
The United States has also announced a new diplomatic effort with Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to reach a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s military offensive has killed 44,363 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Some 251 hostages were also taken on October 7, and 97 are believed still in Gaza, including 34 people who the Israeli army claims are dead.
The only ceasefire so far, in November 2023, saw the release of about 100 captives by Hamas and its allies in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have led multiple failed efforts since the start of the year to reach a new ceasefire deal.
Earlier on Friday, medics said that Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians overnight in the Gaza Strip, most of them in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the centre of the besieged enclave.
Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in the northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave’s eight long-standing refugee camps.
READ ALSO: Israeli Strikes Kill 30 in Gaza as Death Toll Tops 44,363 Despite US Push for Truce
Some tanks remained active in the western area of the camp and the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said teams were unable to respond to distress calls from residents trapped inside their houses, Reuters news agency reported.
The rest were killed in the northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, medics said as quoted by Reuters. There was no fresh statement by the Israeli military on Friday, but on Thursday it said its forces were continuing to “strike targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip”.
Al Jazeera reported that hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in dire sanitary conditions in central Gaza.
The Israeli military’s so-called “safe zones” are filled with garbage and raw sewage due to severe overcrowding.
Between bombs and the hunger, this buildup of rubbish is slowly killing Palestinian people too, according to Al Jazeera.
