Rafah

U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a team to Washington to discuss how to avoid an all-out assault in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to rekindle on Saturday after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group which also called for more aid into Gaza, where the first food shipment by sea reached shore.

The first day of Ramadan came and went in Gaza, with residents marking a joyless iftar against a backdrop of famine, disease and displacement as the war in the besieged territory ground on more than five months after it began.

As the Muslim world welcomed the start of the holy month on Monday, Gazans faced continued Israeli bombardments and a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

The head of the European Commission said on Friday a maritime aid corridor could start operating between Cyprus and Gaza this weekend, part of accelerating Western efforts to relieve the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.

Even then, only some of the most basic needs of the population would be met.
Therefore, the United Nations has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is "almost inevitable" without decisive action, reports Reuters.

Envoys pushed on with efforts for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal in Cairo talks Wednesday, hoping to halt nearly five months of fighting with days to go before Ramadan.

U.S. President Joe Biden had urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before the Muslim fasting month begins, which could be as early as Sunday depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.

Canada is working to airdrop humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, a cabinet minister said Wednesday.

The confirmation that an active effort is underway comes after Canadian International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said Ottawa was exploring new options to deliver aid.

Ask almost any European official specializing in security matters what keeps them up at night, and they'll probably answer "Egypt." The crisis in the Middle East is most certainly threatening the stability of what is the most important country in the Arab world right now and everyone knows that if Egypt falls, the crisis this would spark would reverberate far beyond Greece or Italy, all the way

A full-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah would deliver a death blow to aid programmes in Gaza, where humanitarian assistance remains "completely insufficient", the U.N. chief warned Monday.

This was said by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that an absolute victory over Hamas could be achieved a few weeks after the offensive begins.
Netanyahu confirmed to CBS on Sunday that talks on a weeks-long ceasefire and the release of the hostages were ongoing, without giving further details.