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Scores killed in Gaza strikes as Israel mulls truce position

Scores killed in Gaza strikes as Israel mulls truce talks position
MENA
5 min read
Day 163: At least 92 people were killed in overnight Israeli strikes in Gaza, as Israeli negotiators prepared to go to Qatar for new truce talks.

At least 92 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli bombardment, Gaza's health ministry announced on Sunday, as Israel was preparing to send negotiators to new truce talks in Qatar.

Israel's security cabinet and the smaller war cabinet were to meet to "decide on the mandate of the delegation in charge of the negotiations before its departure for Doha," the prime minister's office said.

More than five months of indiscriminate Israeli attacks and a crippling siege have led to dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine for the coastal territory's 2.4 million people.

At least 31,645 people in Gaza, most of them women and children have been killed, according to the health ministry.

As the flow of aid trucks into Gaza has slowed, a second ship was due to depart from Cyprus along a new maritime corridor to bring food and relief goods, Cypriot officials said.

On Saturday the US charity World Central Kitchen said its team had finished unloading supplies from the first vessel to reach Gaza.

The United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing north Gaza, where residents say they have resorted to eating animal fodder, and where some have stormed the few aid trucks that have made it through.

Most Gazans displaced by the fighting have sought refuge in Rafah on the Egyptian border, where Israel has threatened to launch a ground offensive, without giving a timeline.

The head of the UN's World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, appealed to Israel "in the name of humanity" not to launch an assault on Rafah.