Hamas sending delegation to Qatar to continue Gaza ceasefire talks

Hamas is sending a delegation to Qatar to continue indirect ceasefire talks with Israel over the war in Gaza, an official has said.

The move came as the territory’s Health Ministry said 38 people had been confirmed killed over the past day.

The Hamas official said teams have been discussing terms for a new ceasefire agreement over recent days in Cairo, including a proposal that Hamas frees eight to 10 hostages held in Gaza.

But the official said a major sticking point remained over whether the war would end as part of any new deal.

The talks in Qatar are meant to take place later this week or next, the official said.

Officials from Israel and Qatar had no immediate comment.

Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire in January that lasted eight weeks before Israel resumed the war last month.

The initial ceasefire agreement was meant to bring the sides towards negotiating an end to the war, something Israel has resisted doing because it wants to defeat Hamas first.

Since the ceasefire fell apart last month, Israel has blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and forces have also seized stretches of the coastal enclave in a bid to increase pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal more aligned with Israel’s terms.

On Monday, the United Nations humanitarian office warned that the situation in Gaza is likely to be “the worst” since Israel launched its retaliation to Hamas’s attacks 18 months ago, pointing to the Israeli ban on all supplies entering the Gaza Strip since March 2.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters: “No fuel has come in, no food has come in, no medicine has come in.”

The war started when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during an attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, and took 250 people captive.

Many were freed in ceasefire deals and 59 remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count but says more than half of the dead have been women and children.

The Health Ministry said on Monday that 38 bodies had been taken to hospitals across the territory over the past 24 hours. It said more than 1,600 people had been killed since the ceasefire collapsed.

Also on Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that a Palestinian medic was detained during an Israeli military operation in which troops killed 15 first responders in the Gaza Strip.

It was the first confirmation of the medic’s whereabouts since the March 23 attack in southern Gaza.

The Red Cross said it has not been granted access to visit him.

The Israeli military initially said troops had opened fire on vehicles that raised suspicion because they were travelling without lights on. It later backtracked after video emerged showing clearly marked ambulances travelling with their sirens flashing before the shooting.

The military said it killed nine militants travelling in the ambulances, without providing evidence. It named one of the militants, but the name did not match those of any of the paramedics, and no other bodies are known to have been recovered.

The military says it is investigating further.