GAZA: Deadly airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip as talks towards a truce between the Zionist entity and Hamas were set to resume in Cairo on Sunday, according to Egyptian state television. Heavy fighting raged on in the besieged Palestinian territory, including in or around several hospitals, in the nearly six-month-old war.

The fighting has raged on unabated despite a UN Security Council resolution last Monday that demanded an “immediate ceasefire” and the release of all hostages held by militants. Tensions have risen over the spiraling civilian death toll between the Zionist entity and its chief backer the United States, especially over Zionist threats to send ground forces into Gaza’s crowded far-southern city of Rafah. Washington has nonetheless approved billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets for the Zionist entity in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.

As a Zionist siege has deepened the humanitarian crisis, an aid delivery inside Gaza descended into deadly chaos with shots fired and a stampede before dawn on Saturday. At least five people were killed and dozens wounded, according to a Red Crescent paramedic. To help alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, another aid ship was sailing from the Mediterranean island-nation of Cyprus to bring 400 tons of food relief, as part of a small flotilla.

Foreign powers have ramped up aid airdrops, although UN agencies and charities warn this falls far short of the dire need. Several people have died in stampedes or drowned trying to retrieve packages from the sea. At least 75 people were killed overnight in new Zionist bombardment and ground combat, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.

The Zionist entity has killed at least 32,782 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. Under intense pressure to bring captives home, Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday approved a new round of ceasefire talks to take place in Doha and Cairo. Egyptian TV station Al-Qahera, which is close to the country’s intelligence services, said that the talks would resume in Cairo on Sunday.

An anchor said on Saturday that “an Egyptian security source confirmed to Al-Qahera News the resumption of negotiations on a truce between (the Zionist entity) and Hamas in the Egyptian capital Cairo tomorrow”. Netanyahu is under pressure from the captives’ relatives and supporters, including at mass rallies Saturday night in Tel Aviv, where police used water cannons against protesters who lit fires and blocked highways.

In Gaza, vast areas of which have been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland, heavy fighting has rocked areas around several Gaza hospitals. The Gaza health ministry said 107 patients remained inside Al-Shifa Hospital, including 30 with disabilities, and that the army had stopped attempts to evacuate them.

Zionist military operations were also ongoing at two hospitals in the southern city of Khan Yunis — at Nasser Hospital, according to the Hamas government press office, and at Al-Amal Hospital, according to the Red Crescent. The UN World Health Organization warned that Gaza now has just 10 “minimally functioning” hospitals, down from 36 before the war. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that 9,000 patients need to leave Gaza for “lifesaving health services, including treatment for cancer, injuries from bombardments, kidney dialysis and other chronic conditions”. – AFP