Gaza truce talks end inconclusively as Rafah braces for Israeli assault

Summary:

• Talks involving the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar on a Gaza truce ended without a breakthrough on Tuesday as calls grew for Israel to hold back on a planned assault on the southern end of the enclave.
• Ahead of the efforts to hammer out a truce, the Israeli campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum sent the Mossad chief a plea saying the delegation must “not return without a deal”.
• With Palestinians in Rafah “staring death in the face,” United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said an Israeli ground invasion there would make humanitarian relief nearly impossible.
• The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 28,473 people have been killed and 67,984 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7, the vast majority women and children. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

• The UN has again warned against an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, saying it could “lead to a slaughter” in the southern region of the Palestinian enclave.
• Israel’s army Tuesday released a video it said was of Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, filmed on October 10 with his family members in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory.
• The leader of Yemen‘s Houthi movement has said the group had been able to prevent Israeli-linked ships from passing through the Gulf of Aden over the past week.
• South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to urgently intervene against a looming full-scale Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.   

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, Reuters)