Talks on a potential ceasefire deal in Gaza "have not been progressing as expected" in the past few days after good progress in recent weeks, key mediator Qatar said Saturday, as Israel's prime minister accused the Hamas militant group of not changing its "delusional" demands. Speaking during the Munich Security Conference, the AP reports, Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al Thani, noted difficulties in the "humanitarian part" of the negotiations. Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinians held by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure to bring home remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, said he sent a delegation to ceasefire talks in Cairo earlier in the week at President Biden's request but doesn't see the point in sending them again. Netanyahu also pushed back against international concern about a planned Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, a city on southern Gaza's border with Egypt. He said "total victory" against Hamas requires the offensive, once people living there evacuate to safe areas. Where they will go in largely devastated Gaza is not clear.
New airstrikes in central Gaza on Saturday killed more than 40 people, including children, and wounded at least 50, according to AP journalists and hospital officials. Israel's military said it carried out strikes there against Hamas. Five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house outside Khan Younis in the south, according to health officials, and another five people, including three children, were killed in an airstrike on a building north of Rafah. Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, said other bodies were being pulled from the rubble.
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