Biden steps up pressure on Gaza cease-fire deal

New York [US], April 7: US President Joe Biden has written to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, calling on them to press Hamas to "agree to and abide by a deal," a senior administration official told the AFP and AP news agencies.
Qatari, Egyptian, and US mediators are working to broker a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
But their efforts to secure a cease-fire and an exchange of hostages for prisoners have made no headway since a week-long truce in November.
"This basic fact remains true: There would be a cease-fire in Gaza today had Hamas simply agreed to release this vulnerable category of hostages, the sick, wounded, elderly, and young women," the senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.
On Thursday, Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to redouble efforts to reach a cease-fire in the six-month-old war in Gaza.
Over 600,000 children in Rafah face hunger
James Elder, spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has raised alarm over the dire situation faced by more than 600,000 children in Rafah, southern Gaza, who are grappling with hunger and fear amidst the threat of Israeli attacks.
In a video posted on X account, Elder shed light on the plight of children striving to survive in Rafah amid Israeli assaults, following the influx of 1.5 million people into the area as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression.
Elder reminded the children and families fleeing Israeli attacks that they were told to head to Rafah as it would be safe there. However, despite this assurance, brutal attacks have been carried out..
Australia to appoint a special advisor to probe Israeli airstrike on aid convoy
Australia has announced that it will assign a special adviser to collaborate with Israel in order to ensure that the investigations into the Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza are conducted with complete confidence.
The strike resulted in the death of seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip, including an Australian national.
"We want to have full confidence in the transparency and accountability of any investigation and we will continue to work to achieve that," Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a televised media conference in Adelaide.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday saidtwo officers who were involved in a deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy in Gaza, killing seven workers on a food delivery mission, had been dismissed.
The findings of an investigation into the Monday killings said the soldiers had mishandled critical information and violated the army's terms of engagement.
Wong described the dismissals as "necessary first steps" but said the government had told Israel in a letter sent overnight that "initial responses suggest that the gravity of the death of seven humanitarian workers is yet to be appreciated by the Israeli government."
"This cannot be brushed aside," Wong said, adding that she expected all evidence in the investigations to be preserved.
Source: Times of Oman