Negotiations for Gaza truce talks underway as child malnutrition rises

The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) hopes the ceasefire deal recently proposed by the United States will end Israeli aggression towards Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News TV channel quoted a Fatah spokesman as saying on Sunday.

"We hope that U.S. President Joe Biden's plan will be earnest to stop the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Fatah spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh told Al-Qahera News in a phone call. He also said he hoped Biden's plan would not reinforce the geographical separation between Gaza and the West Bank.

Doleh's remarks came as Egypt works with Qatar and the United States to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Biden on Friday aired a three-phase plan to end the fierce fighting in besieged Gaza.

Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative, though a senior official from the group, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Sunday that "Hamas is too big to be bypassed or sidelined by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Biden."

Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times that Biden's proposal was "a deal we agreed to – it's not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Israel is promoting a governing alternative to Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.

"We will isolate areas, eliminate Hamas personnel, and bring in other forces that will establish a different governing body," Gallant said.

The minister added that "the operation in Rafah is progressing above and below ground, with the forces destroying the 'oxygen tube' that connects the Gaza Strip to Egypt," stressing that "we are suffocating Hamas, not allowing it to continue to exist or to reinforce, strengthen, and arm itself."

Already in its eighth month, the Israel-Hamas conflict has led to the deaths of at least 36,439 Palestinians and injuries to more than 82,617, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities.

Aid agencies warned that the humanitarian situation is even worse when it comes to children. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that more than four in five children had gone a whole day without eating at least once in 72 hours.

"Children are starving," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a statement.

The rise in malnutrition among Gaza's children is largely a result of humanitarian aid that enters the Palestinian territory not reaching its intended destination, aid agencies said.

Cases of malnutrition among children in Rafah have also emerged in recent days, with several babies being treated for it in healthcare centers, AFP correspondents reported.

"The occupation has prevented the entry of food, particularly milk, for children, which has led to serious weakness in the body, very poor growth and infection by numerous diseases," a doctor told AFP.

(With input from agencies)