US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while the Palestinian group warned talks for a truce and hostage release cannot go on “indefinitely”.
As famine threatens Gazans, US and Jordanian planes again airdropped food aid into the besieged territory of 2.4 million people in a joint operation with Egypt and France.
Bombing and fighting in the war sparked by the October 7 attack killed another 97 people in Gaza, said the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, where Israel said its jets had struck 50 targets over the past day.
In Cairo, US and Hamas envoys were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in protracted negotiations to end the fighting and free hostages before Ramadan starts on March 10 or 11.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is close to the country’s intelligence services, said the talks were “ongoing” and would continue for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday.
The parties in Egypt — so far excluding Israel — have discussed a plan for a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and increased aid into Gaza.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, said Hamas would “not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely”.
Biden warned Hamas to agree to a Gaza ceasefire by Ramadan, after his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, urged it to accept an “immediate ceasefire”.
“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” the US president told reporters.
“There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan — if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”
He did not elaborate, but the United States last week urged Israel to allow Muslims to worship at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
The Israeli government said later that it would allow Muslim worshippers to access Al-Aqsa during Ramadan “in similar numbers to those in previous years”.