(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Hamas' armed wing yesterday accused Israel of blocking a deal in talks for a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
Negotiators from both sides have been in indirect talks in Qatar since July 6 to try to agree on a 60-day truce in the conflict, which would see 10 captives freed.
But after nearly two weeks, there has been no breakthrough and each side has blamed the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.
Hamas' armed wing spokesperson said yesterday that while the group favours reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has repeatedly offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
"If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives," said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters yesterday.
Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli fire killed 10 aid seekers yesterday, as a hospital director in the south warned of an influx of patients with acute malnutrition.
The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza's population of more than 2mn, triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that Israeli fire killed nine people "near the US aid centre in the Al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah city in southern Gaza" yesterday.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
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Sohaib al-Hums, a medical doctor and director of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the south, yesterday warned the medical facility was "witnessing an unprecedented influx of displaced persons".
"We are receiving cases suffering from extreme exhaustion and complete fatigue, in addition to severe emaciation and acute malnutrition due to prolonged lack of food," he said in a statement.
"We warn that hundreds whose bodies have completely wasted away are now facing imminent death, as their physical endurance has been surpassed," he added.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned last week that its teams in Gaza were seeing surging levels of acute malnutrition and that levels had reached an "all-time high" at two of its facilities in the territory.

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