Hamas Officials Say Group Held Direct Gaza Ceasefire Talks With US

Hamas and US representatives have held rare direct talks in Qatar, two officials from the Palestinian group told AFP on Sunday, while deadly Israeli strikes hit the besieged Gaza Strip.

"Direct talks have taken place in Doha between the Hamas leadership and the United States regarding a ceasefire in Gaza, a prisoner exchange and the entry of humanitarian aid," said a senior Hamas official, adding that the talks "are still ongoing".

It came as Gaza's civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes on Sunday killed at least 12 people, including four young children.

A second Hamas official said there was "progress made... notably on the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip" and the potential exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, "particularly concerning Edan Alexander", a US-Israeli captive held by militants.

The second official also reported progress "on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip".

Gaza militants continue to hold 58 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel ended the last ceasefire, which lasted two months, on March 18, launching a major offensive in Gaza and ramping up its bombardment of the territory.

It has also cut off all aid to Gaza, saying it would pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, have taken place from the early months of the war without bringing it to an end.

Washington had for decades refused publicly to engage directly with Hamas, which it labels a terrorist organisation, before first doing so in March.

Hamas has continued to insist on a deal that ends the war and on April 18 rejected an Israeli proposal for a 45-day truce and hostage-prisoner exchange.

Despite the talks, the war in the devastated Palestinian territory raged on.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP that Israeli jets had hit three tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

AFP footage showed rescuers working in the dark, evacuating a wounded baby from the site of the strike as well as two bodies, one of them in a white plastic bag and another wrapped in a blanket.

A separate strike on Khan Yunis killed three people, Bassal said, while another was killed in Gaza City.

The Israeli military did not comment on any specific incidents but said its air force had struck "more than 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip" since Saturday.

While ceasefire negotiations have yet to produce a breakthrough, Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, on Sunday "fully" endorsed a US plan to restore aid to Gaza, under a complete blockade since March 2.

Israel insists there is not a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip despite the warnings of aid groups and the United Nations, and says Hamas hijacks aid that enters the territory.

On Friday, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee outlined a plan in which a new foundation would lead the distribution of aid in Gaza, backed by Israeli military and private security.

The plan has drawn hefty international criticism for sidelining the United Nations and existing aid organisations, with the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, saying it was "impossible" to replace it in Gaza.

Hamas's 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday that at least 2,720 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,829.