Efforts to hammer out a temporary truce in Gaza intensified Tuesday after months of war that have devastated the Palestinian territory and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said everyone in Gaza was now in need of humanitarian aid, after a UN-backed assessment said 300,000 people in the territory's north would face famine by May without a surge of aid.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israel was blocking aid and conducting the conflict in a way that "may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war".
Israeli troops on Tuesday were pressing an assault on Gaza's biggest hospital which they allege is being used for military purposes, saying more than 50 fighters had been killed.
Hamas said the attack on Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital was a war crime.
And the fate of the southern city of Rafah, which endured another night of bombardment, hangs in the balance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting once again that a ground incursion was inevitable.
But there was a glimmer of hope as Cyprus officials confirmed a second shipment of food was likely to head to Gaza in the coming days, as supplies from the first delivery were being distributed in the territory on Tuesday.
- 'Cautiously optimistic' -
Negotiations on a ceasefire in Qatar also appeared to be moving, with tentative indications of compromise on both sides.
Israel's spy chief David Barnea kicked off a new round of talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on Monday, after weeks of talks failed to secure a truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.
Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said he was "cautiously optimistic" but it was "too early to announce any successes".
Hamas had earlier proposed a six-week ceasefire, an increase in aid and the initial release of about 42 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Hamas official said Israeli forces would have to withdraw from "all cities and populated areas" in Gaza.
Ansari said they were expecting a counter-proposal to be presented to Hamas and technical talks would continue.
The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.
Israel has responded with a relentless offensive against Hamas that has killed at least 31,819 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
- 'Witnessed death' -
Blinken, who will travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week to try to shore up support for the temporary truce and an increase in aid, highlighted that everyone in Gaza was now suffering "severe levels of acute food insecurity".
"That's the first time an entire population has been so classified," he said during a visit to the Philippines.
Underlining his point, AFPTV footage showed desperate crowds gathered at the Jabalia refugee camp to get a portion of carrot soup.
"We came to queue, but they threw us out," said Jabalia resident Musaab al-Masry, lamenting that there was not enough food for everyone.
Further south, a diplomatic storm continued to rumble around the city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere in the territory.
US President Joe Biden is putting pressure on Netanyahu to pull back from a threatened full-scale ground operation.
But the Israeli premier said on Tuesday he had told Biden "we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there is no way to do this without a ground incursion".
The city is already under bombardment, with AFPTV footage showing residents picking through debris of buildings on Tuesday after another night of strikes.
Yasmine Sheikh al-Eid, who had fled from nearby Khan Yunis, said she had dragged her sister and father from under rubble and "witnessed death" all around.
"Here, a man laid with his head blown off, and there, a child had fallen, flew from the top of a building," she said.
- Hamas official 'dead' -
For the past two months, much of the Israeli military effort has been focused on the south.
Officials declared in January that the Hamas command structure in northern Gaza had been dismantled.
But the assault on Al-Shifa threw the spotlight back on the north.
Israel has long accused militants of using hospitals as bases and troops previously raided Al-Shifa last November, sparking an international outcry.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said this week that Palestinian militants and commanders had since returned to Al-Shifa "and turned it into a command centre".
Witnesses reported air strikes and tanks near the hospital compound, which is crowded with thousands of displaced civilians, as well as the sick and wounded.
Late on Monday, the US confirmed the death of Marwan Issa, who they said was Hamas's "number three".
Israel had accused Issa of helping plan the October 7 attack and said on March 11 their forces had targeted him in an air strike, but did not confirm he had been killed.
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