GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Feb 14, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Negotiations to

pause the Israel-Hamas war and free the remaining hostages headed into a
second day in Cairo on Wednesday, as displaced Gazans braced for an expected
Israeli assault on their last refuge of Rafah.

A Hamas source told AFP that a delegation was headed to the Egyptian capital
to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators, after Israeli negotiators held talks
with the mediators on Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel's
conduct of the Gaza war, was also due in Cairo Wednesday for talks with
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

CIA Director William Burns had joined Tuesday's talks with David Barnea, head
of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, which Egyptian media said had been
mostly "positive".

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby described the
negotiations as "constructive and moving in the right direction".

Mediators are racing to secure a pause to the fighting before Israel proceeds
with a full-scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip's far-southern city of
Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped.

The potential for mass civilian casualties has triggered urgent appeals, even
from close allies, for Israel to hold off sending troops into the last major
population centre they have yet to enter in the four-month war.

Key ally the United States has said it will not back any ground operation in
Rafah without a "credible plan" for protecting civilians.

Rafah is the main entry point for desperately needed relief supplies and UN
agencies have warned of a humanitarian disaster if an assault goes ahead.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said any military operation "could
lead to a slaughter".

Terrified civilians have been locked in a desperate search for safety.

"My three children were injured, where can I go?" Dana Abu Chaaban asked at
the city's border crossing with Egypt, where she was hoping to be allowed
across with her bandaged-up sons.

- 'Let us cross' -

Pressure has grown on Egypt to open its border to Palestinian civilians,
hundreds of thousands of whom have sought shelter in makeshift camps by the
border where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea and a scarcity of
food and water.

But it remains closed to Gazans.

"For 100 days we enter the crossing and beg them to let us cross, or to do
anything to help us," Habiba Nakhala said.

US President Joe Biden has said civilians in Rafah "need to be protected",
calling them "exposed and vulnerable".

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said "complete victory"
cannot be achieved without the elimination of Hamas's last battalions in
Rafah.

As the truce talks go on in Cairo, the Israeli military has kept up its
bombardment of Gaza. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said
Wednesday that 104 people had been killed overnight.

Late Tuesday, the military released a video it said was from a security
camera and showed Gaza's Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and family members escaping
through a tunnel days after the October 7 attack that launched the war.

"The hunt will not stop until he is captured alive or dead," Israeli army
spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters.

Some Gazans in Rafah were already packing up their belongings in readiness to
move but others vowed to stay put, fearing even greater misery in the bombed
out hometowns they fled.

Ahlam Abu Assi said she "would rather die" in Rafah than return to the
famine-like conditions facing relatives who stayed in Gaza City.

"My son and his children have nothing to eat. They cook a handful of rice and
save it for the next day," she told AFP. "My grandson cries from hunger."

- Hostages -

The Hamas attack that launched the war resulted in the deaths of about 1,160
people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on
Israeli official figures.

At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in
Israel's response, according to the health ministry.

Around 130 of an estimated 250 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants
during the attack are believed to remain in Gaza. Israel says 29 of them are
presumed dead.

Ahead of the Cairo truce talks, the Israeli campaign group Hostages and
Missing Families Forum sent the Mossad chief a plea saying the delegation
must "not return without a deal".

Asked by reporters whether he believes the Americans among the hostages were
still alive, National Security Council spokesperson Kirby said: "We don't
have any information to the contrary."