CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiators discussed new compromise proposals in Cairo on Saturday, seeking to bridge gaps between the Zionist entity and Hamas as the UN reported worsening humanitarian conditions, with malnutrition soaring and polio discovered. Zionist military strikes in Gaza killed 50 people on Saturday, Palestinian health authorities said. Victims of hostilities over the past 48 hours remain lying on roads where fighting continues or trapped under rubble, the authorities said.

A Hamas delegation arrived on Saturday to be nearer at hand to review any proposals that emerge in the main talks between the Zionist entity and the mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and the United States, two Egyptian security sources said. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani was expected to attend.

Months of on-off talks have so far failed to produce a breakthrough to end the Zionist entity’s devastating military campaign in Gaza. The Egyptian sources said the new proposals include compromises on outstanding points such as how to secure key areas and the return of people to north Gaza.

However, there was no sign of any breakthrough on key sticking points, including the Zionist entity’s

insistence that it must retain control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Hamas has accused the Zionist entity of going back on things it had previously agreed to in the talks. The group says the United States is not mediating in good faith.

In the Zionist entity, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has locked horns with Zionist ceasefire negotiators over whether Zionist troops must remain all along the border between Gaza and Egypt, a person with knowledge of the talks said. A Palestinian official familiar with mediation efforts said it was too soon to predict the outcome of talks. “Hamas is there to discuss the outcome of the mediators’ talks with the (Zionist) officials and whether there is enough to suggest a change in the Netanyahu stance about reaching a deal,” the official said.

Continuing the war will worsen the plight of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, nearly all of them homeless in tents or shelters among the ruins, with malnutrition rampant and disease spreading. The Zionist military campaign has killed 40,334 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children.

Fighting raged in Gaza on Saturday, with AFP correspondents and civil defense rescue sources reporting ongoing Zionist artillery fire and air strikes across the territory. In Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood, gunfire and explosions echoed as Palestinian fighters clashed with Zionist soldiers, an AFP correspondent added. An overnight strike on a house west of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza killed 11 people, including a woman and four children, a doctor at Nasser Hospital said.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a Friday update that the amount of food aid entering Gaza in July was one of the lowest since October, when the Zionist entity imposed a full siege. OCHA said that in July the number of children with acute malnutrition in northern Gaza was four times higher than in May, while in the more accessible south, where fighting is less severe, the number more than doubled.

The World Health Organization said on Friday a 10-month-old baby had been paralyzed with polio, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, raising fears of a wider outbreak given the lack of proper sanitation for people living in ruins. More warfare also risks major new escalations, with Iran still weighing retaliation for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its territory last month.

Meanwhile, US Air Force General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began an unannounced visit to the Middle East on Saturday to discuss ways to avoid any new escalation in tensions that could spiral into a broader conflict, as the region braces for a threatened Iranian attack against the Zionist entity. Fighting between the Zionist entity and Iranian-backed Hezbollah since Oct 7 has ramped up recently, including with Zionist strikes across southern Lebanon and into the Bekaa, and with more Hezbollah rocket fire into the Zionist entity’s north. – Agencies