Gaza truce possible but not imminent, says Israel, as deaths continue

Israel and Hamas may be able to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal within one or two weeks – but such an agreement is not likely to be secured in just a day's time, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday.

Speaking during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, the official said that if the two sides agree to a proposed 60-day ceasefire, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent ceasefire that would require the Palestinian militant group to disarm.

If Hamas refuses, "we'll proceed" with military operations in Gaza, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Hamas said on Wednesday it has agreed to release 10 hostages under ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, while saying ongoing talks for a truce were "tough" due to Israel's "intransigence."

The Palestinian group said the talks have several sticking points, including the flow of aid, withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and "genuine guarantees for a permanent ceasefire."

Netanyahu visits Trump

Trump met Netanyahu on Tuesday for the second time in two days to discuss the situation in Gaza, with the president's Middle East envoy indicating that Israel and Hamas were nearing an agreement after 21 months of war.

Trump had predicted that a deal could be reached this week, raising speculation about a possible announcement before Netanyahu leaves for Israel on Thursday.

On Wednesday, however, Trump appeared to extend the timeframe somewhat, telling reporters that while an agreement was "very close," it could happen this week or even next – though "not definitely."

A source familiar with Hamas' thinking said four days of indirect talks with Israel in Qatar did not produce any breakthroughs on main sticking points.

The Israeli official, who briefed reporters in Washington, declined to provide details on the negotiations.

Trump's Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the anticipated agreement would involve the release of 10 living and nine deceased hostages.

Netanyahu's visit came just over two weeks after Trump ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites in support of Israeli air strikes. Since the 12-day Israel-Iran war ended in ceasefire, there have been attempts to push both sides for a breakthrough to end the Gaza war.

As talks continue, war grinds on

The Gaza conflict began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 hostages taken, according to Israeli figures. Around 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.

Israel's retaliatory war has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry says, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

In recent weeks Israel's military has continued to hammer Gaza, where a teddy bear lay in the rubble on Wednesday at the site of one overnight airstrike in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.

Umm Mohammed Shaaban, a Palestinian grandmother mourning the deaths of three of her grandchildren in the attack, questioned the timing of a proposed ceasefire.

"After they finished us, they say they'll make a truce?" she said.

In Gaza City, people removed debris after another overnight airstrike, searching through a three-story house for survivors to no avail. One resident, Ahmed al-Nahhal, said there was no fuel for trucks to help in rescue efforts. "From midnight till now, we have been looking for the children," he said.

Nearby men carried bodies in shrouds while women wept. Some kissed bodies placed in the back of a vehicle.

Doctors say fuel shortage could turn Gaza's biggest hospital into graveyard

Overwhelmed doctors and patients at Gaza's largest medical center could soon be plunged into darkness because of dwindling fuel supplies, which doctors say threaten to paralyze Al Shifa hospital as Israel presses on with its military campaign.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, Al Shifa's patients faced imminent danger, doctors there said.

The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," said Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said.

There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties.

Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency.

Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiyah, Al Shifa's director, warned of a humanitarian catastrophe due to a fuel crisis posing a direct threat to hospital operations, desalination plants and the water supply system.

He accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals.

"Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Salamiyah said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside".

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients.