GAZA STRIP: Hopes dimmed on Thursday for a truce before Ramadan in the Israel-Hamas war that entered its sixth month with dozens more killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory threatened by famine.
The ministry said 83 more people had been killed over the previous day, adding to a toll it says has reached 30,800, mostly women and children, in a war that China called “a disgrace to civilisation”.
In the wasteland of Jabalia, northern Gaza, Palestinians gathered to receive meals at a donation point.
“There is no gas to cook our food on. There is no flour, or rice,” said Bassam al-Hou, standing beside large, blackened cooking pots among the dusty rubble.
He said children “are dying and fainting in the streets from hunger. What can we do?”
Fighting began after an unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, Israeli figures show.
Israel has responded with a relentless bombardment, alongside a ground offensive, that Hamas authorities on Thursday said had continued with more than 30 Israeli air strikes across the territory.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, the bodies of about 14 people killed lay in front of a hospital. The bare feet of some protruded from under the coloured cloths that covered them.
US President Joe Biden had urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan begins, as early as Sunday depending on the lunar calendar.
But on Thursday Hamas’s delegation left Cairo and talks “will resume next week” during Ramadan, said Al-Qahera News channel, which is linked to Egypt’s state intelligence service, citing a senior source.
Hamas confirmed its delegates had left Cairo for truce consultations, while voicing dissatisfaction with Israeli responses so far.
As talks drag on, the United Nations has repeatedly warned that famine looms for Palestinians struggling to survive in the territory.
“It is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilisation that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country has been historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
By late January the war had damaged around half of all buildings in Gaza and rendered the territory “uninhabitable” for its 2.4 million people, a UN agency said, warning the impact would only worsen if the war continued.
The health ministry on Wednesday said 20 people had died of malnutrition and dehydration, at least half of them children. Only limited aid has reached Gaza’s north.
The UN on Wednesday again cited “access constraints” as among the factors limiting essential water and other services, while United States Vice President Kamala Harris has said Israel “must not impose any unnecessary restrictions” on aid delivery.