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Plans were first announced by US President Joe Biden in early March as Israel had been accused of holding up deliveries of assistance by ground.
Israel has stepped up its attack on Rafah after vowing to move on with the planned military operation in the southern Gaza city. Hamas, however, said that Israel would fail to meet its goals even if it invaded Rafah.
A delegation from Gaza war mediator Egypt arrived in Israel on Friday for a bid to reignite stalled ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Israeli and Egyptian media reported.The signs of fresh truce talks come alongside Israeli preparations for a military push in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, and with spillover from the war leading to stepped-up exchanges of fire over Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to find a ceasefire for the war in Gaza without success since a one-week halt to the fighting in November. That truce saw the exchange of 80 Israeli captives in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Since then, global criticism of the toll on Palestinian civilians in Gaza has escalated, as have calls for Hamas militants to release the remaining hostages being held since their October 7 attack triggered the war.
An Egyptian delegation met Israeli officials yesterday, looking for a way to restart talks to end the offensive in Gaza and return the remaining Israeli hostages, an official briefed on the meetings said.