The Japan Times - Mediators work for halt to deadly Gaza fighting

The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.

The group was reviewing a proposal for a six-week pause in its war with Israel and a hostage-prisoner exchange, a Hamas source told AFP, days after US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met in Paris.

The Israeli army said Thursday troops had "eliminated dozens of terrorists" in the past day and destroyed a long-range missile launcher in the embattled southern city of Khan Yunis.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, 119 people were killed in the latest night of strikes, while aid and health workers have for days reported heavy fighting.

"There is a massacre taking place right now," said Leo Cans of international aid group Doctors Without Borders.

The UN also reported heavy bombardment across Gaza, particularly in Khan Yunis, while it said 184,000 more Palestinians from the city had registered to receive humanitarian assistance after fleeing their homes in recent days.

More than 30,000 displaced people in schools around the city's Nasser hospital are facing a lack of food, water, medicine and baby formula, said health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.

- Three-stage plan -

As Qatari and Egyptian-led mediation efforts intensified, Haniyeh was due in Cairo to discuss a truce proposal thrashed out in Paris at the weekend with CIA chief William Burns.

A Hamas source told AFP the three-stage plan would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

Only "women, children and sick men over 60" held by Gaza militants would be freed during that stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

There would also be "negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces", with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, said the source.

The war was triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza including at least 29 people believed to have been killed.

Following the deadliest attack in Israel's history, its military launched a withering offensive that has killed at least 27,019 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development said tens of billions of dollars would be required to rebuild Gaza, which "currently is uninhabitable" as half its structures are damaged or destroyed.

- Aid access -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out withdrawing troops from Gaza and has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas, which the United States and European Union consider a "terrorist" group.

Netanyahu has also opposed releasing "thousands" of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal.

With scores of Israeli hostages still trapped in Gaza, there has been mounting criticism of Netanyahu's government that has triggered street protests and calls for an early election.

For people in Gaza, access to aid has been further hampered by a controversy surrounding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused several of its staff of involvement in the Hamas attack.

The claims last week saw several donor countries, led by key Israel ally the United States, freeze funding for the agency.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres told a UN committee he had "met with donors to listen to their concerns and to outline the steps we are taking".

Netanyahu told a meeting of UN ambassadors in Jerusalem that UNRWA had been "totally infiltrated" by Hamas and called for other agencies to replace it.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that "if the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region".

- Regional tensions -

The war's impact has been felt widely, with violence involving Iran-backed allies of Hamas across the Middle East surging since October and drawing in US forces among others.

The White House blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of pro-Iran armed groups, for a drone attack that killed three US soldiers at a base in Jordan.

Yemen's Huthi rebels, part of the "axis of resistance" of Iranian-backed groups, have been harassing Red Sea shipping for months, triggering US and British reprisal attacks.

A missile fired from Yemen hit a merchant vessel, maritime security firm Ambrey said early Thursday, after the Huthis claimed an attack on a US ship.

And an explosion was reported near a ship off the Yemeni coast, British maritime security agency UKMTO said, adding that both the vessel and crew are safe.

The US military said Wednesday a destroyer shot down three Iranian drones along with an anti-ship missile fired by the Huthis. It also said it had conducted strikes in Yemen against 10 attack drones and a ground control station.

British foreign minister David Cameron met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Thursday to discuss defusing deadly tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border as the Israeli army reported new exchanges of fire.

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel, the border has seen near-daily exchanges between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

Cameron and Mikati discussed "ways to restore calm in southern Lebanon, as well as the political and diplomatic solution that is needed," the prime minister's office said.

burs-jd/fz/dv

S.Suzuki--JT