Trump to meet Qatar PM in ‘hopeful' bid to produce Gaza war ceasefire deal
Israel and Hamas are conducting indirect negotiations to end the conflict.
The UN says 875 people were killed at aid points in Gaza within the past six weeks.
US President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday to discuss negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X.
Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the conflict.
Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had said on Sunday that he was 'hopeful' on the ceasefire negotiations under way in Qatar, a key mediator between the two sides.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been working to secure an agreement, however, Israel and Hamas are divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel.
Israel says Hamas killed 1 200 and took about 250 hostages.
Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 58 000 Palestinians.
Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images
It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court.
Israel denies the accusations.
A previous two-month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on 18 March.
Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of 'ethnic cleansing'.
READ | EU mulls Israel sanctions over Gaza, but action seems unlikely in divided Europe
The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
Hassan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Images
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.
The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.
'The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organisations,' Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
The UN has called the GHF aid model 'inherently unsafe' and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images
The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had 'nearly all of their aid looted' by Hamas or criminal gangs.
The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by 'hungry civilian communities'.
Trump and Sheikh Mohammed are also expected to discuss efforts to resume talks between the US and Iran to reach a new nuclear agreement, Ravid added citing a source familiar with the matter.
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