Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza ahead of high-level cease-fire talks in Egypt
Cairo, Aug 24: Multiple Israeli airstrikes killed at least three dozen Palestinians in southern Gaza, health workers said Saturday, as officials including a Hamas delegation gathered for high-level cease-fire talks in neighboring Egypt.
Among the dead were 11 members of a family, including two children, after an airstrike hit their home in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which received a total of 33 bodies from three strikes in and around the city that also hit tuk-tuks and passersby.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it received three bodies from another strike.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
First responders also recovered 16 bodies from the Hamad City area of Khan Younis after a partial pullout of Israeli forces, 10 bodies from a residential block west of Khan Younis and two farther south in Rafah. The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear, but the areas were repeatedly bombed by the Israeli military over the past week. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies.
Some residents returned to Hamad City, walking between destroyed apartment buildings.
“There is nothing, no apartment, no furniture, no homes, only destruction,” said one woman, Neveen Kheder. “We are dying slowly. You know what, if they gave a mercy bullet it would be better than what is happening to us.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas and other groups staged a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, primarily civilians. More than 100 hostages were released during a cease-fire last year, but Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110. Israeli authorities estimate about a third are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry said Saturday a total of 69 dead and 212 wounded had been brought to hospitals across the strip over the past 24 hours.
The conflict has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, with many cramming into shrinking “humanitarian zones.”
Experts were meeting Saturday on technical issues ahead of Sunday's high-level talks in Cairo on a possible cease-fire mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar. CIA Director William Burns, Qatar's foreign minister and Egypt's spy chief were meeting Saturday evening in Cairo, according to an Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the talks.
A Hamas delegation arrived Saturday in Cairo to meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawy told the AP. He stressed that Hamas will not take part directly in Sunday's talks but will be briefed by Egypt and Qatar.
An Israeli delegation that arrived Thursday included the heads of the Mossad foreign intelligence service and Shin Bet security service and top general Maj Gen Eliezer Toledano.
The CIA director and Brett McGurk, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden on the Middle East, are leading the US side of negotiations amid major differences between Israel and Hamas over Israel's insistence that it maintain forces in two strategic corridors in Gaza.
The US has been pushing a proposal that aims at closing the gaps between Israel and Hamas as fears grow over a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both blamed on Israel.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen CQ Brown Jr, was visiting Egypt, Jordan and Israel over the next few days to “stress the importance of deterring further escalation of hostilities,” a statement said.
Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to stress the urgency of reaching a deal and discussed developments with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt on Friday.
A major impasse has been the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt and the Netzarim east-west corridor across the territory. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel retain control of the corridors to prevent smuggling and catch Hamas members.
Merdawy said Hamas' position had not changed from accepting an earlier draft that would include the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
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Ajit Doval briefs Putin on Modi's Kyiv visit
New Delhi, Sep 12: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday briefed Russian President Vladmir Putin on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv amid renewed efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict.
Doval met Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg on the margins of a conclave of the (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) grouping.
"As the prime minister told you during a telephone talk that he was keen to brief you about his visit to Ukraine and his meeting with President Zelenskyy. He (PM Modi) wanted me to come and personally brief you about the talks," Doval told the Russian President.
The NSA said the Modi-Zelenskyy talks were in a very "close format".
"I have come here on the direction of Prime Minister Modi who has conveyed his highest regards to you. His visit to Moscow was greatly successful and he was highly satisfied with the visit," Doval was heard conveying to Putin in a video released by Russian media.
The Putin-Doval meeting came nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Ukranian capital Kyiv and held talks with Zelenskyy.
Last week, the Russian President, speaking at a panel discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok named India, Brazil and China as possible intermediaries that could play a role in resolving the conflict.
In the meeting with Doval, Putin proposed a bilateral meeting with Modi on October 22 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan next month.
The summit of the grouping will be held in Kazan from October 22-24. Modi is set to attend the summit.
In his talks with Zelenskyy, Modi said both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an "active role" to restore peace in the region.
The prime minister said India was on the side of peace since the beginning of the conflict and he would even like to contribute personally for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
Modi's nearly nine-hour visit to Ukraine, the first by an Indian prime minister since its independence in 1991, came six weeks after he held summit talks with Putin in Moscow.
In the last few days, there has been calls for India's potential role in pushing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine as New Delhi has good relations with both the nations.
India has been maintaining that the conflict in Ukraine must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.
On Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni following her talks with Zelenskyy said India and China can play a role in finding a solution to the dragging conflict.
A Kremlin readout of Putin-Doval meeting said the Russian president "noted the successful development of the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia and stressed the importance of security issues in bilateral relations, thanking the Indian side for maintaining dialogue in this area."
It said the Russian president proposed the bilateral meeting with Modi to "summarise the outcomes of joint work" on the implementation of the agreements reached during the Indian leader's visit to Moscow and to outline prospects for the near future.
"We are waiting for our good friend Modi and best regards to him," the Russian media quoted Putin as saying in the meeting with Doval.
On Wednesday, the NSA held wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu focusing on important issues of "mutual interests".
"Both sides reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and discussed important issues of mutual interest," the Indian embassy in Russia said on the talks between Doval and Shoigu.
