GAZA STRIP, Aug 24 (AFP/AP): A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group was sending a delegation to Cairo on Saturday but that they would not attend Gaza ceasefire talks in the Egyptian capital.
"The delegation will meet with senior Egyptian intelligence officials to be briefed on developments in the ongoing round of Gaza ceasefire talks... but this does not mean it will take part in the negotiations," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk publicly on the issue.
Israel's evacuation orders
displace 90pc Gazans
Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the top U.N. humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says she and President Joe Biden are working to end the war in Gaza, where the International Rescue Committee says the polio virus has been circulating for the first time in a quarter-century because of the destruction of hospitals and water infrastructure, along with overcrowded living conditions.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that cease-fire talks in Cairo have been constructive and will continue over the weekend. The United States, Egypt and Qatar are mediating the talks. A crucial sticking point involves Israel's demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza.
The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed Israel, killed around 1,200 people - mostly civilians - and abducted around 250. About 110 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The Israeli offensive launched in response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many were militants or civilians.
Israeli strikes injure
seven in Syria
Seven civilians were injured in Israeli strikes in central Syria on Friday, Syrian state media said.
The state-run SANA new agency, citing an unnamed military official, said the strikes targeted "a number of sites" without specifying what they were, and that air defense systems shot some of the missiles down.
The opposition-linked war monitor Syrian Network for Human Rights said the strikes targeted sites including a weapons depot and fuel storage linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Homs and Hama provinces.
There was no immediate statement from Israel.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that cease-fire talks in Cairo have been constructive and will continue over the weekend.
Families of hostages
meet with Netanyahu
The families of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and vented their anger at his failure to seal a cease-fire deal that would lead to their loved ones' release from Hamas captivity.
The Hostages Family Forum, a group representing relatives of hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, said Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to do everything in his power to bring their family members back alive.
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