GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Feb 14, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Israel faced
growing international pressure Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as
it prepared for an incursion into the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah
where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

CIA director William Burns met Mossad chief David Barnea in Cairo for talks
on a Qatari-brokered plan to temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas
freeing hostages.

The negotiations, which also involved Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian
officials, were "positive" and would continue for three more days, said
Egypt's Al-Qahera News, citing a senior Egyptian official.

A day after Israeli forces rescued two hostages from Gaza, the families of
the remaining captives made an emotional plea to Barnea and the Israeli
delegation ahead of the Cairo talks: "Do not return until everyone comes home
-- the living and the dead."

The Israeli campaign group, Hostages and Missing Families Forum, has urged
the government to exhaust every option to return some 130 hostages still
believed to be in Gaza. Israel says 29 of them are presumed dead.

The group called it a "once-in-a-lifetime mission" and said they must "not
return without a deal".

Militants took about 250 people hostage in an unprecedented Hamas attack on
October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly
civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in
Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Hamas-run Gaza since
then, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.

The Cairo meeting came after the United States and United Nations warned
Israel against a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect
civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

With Rafah on edge, some residents began dismantling makeshift tents and
prepared to move on again.

"We are sleeping in the street, (the tent) doesn't have a roof, it's made of
nylon -- if it gets hit by a missile, you will die instantly," said Gazan
Fayez Abed.

After White House talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday, US
President Joe Biden said civilians in Rafah "need to be protected", calling
them "exposed and vulnerable".

King Abdullah pushed for a "lasting ceasefire", warning that an Israeli
attack on Rafah would "produce another humanitarian catastrophe".

- 'We want to be ready' -

After rejecting Hamas's terms for a truce last week, Israel conducted a pre-
dawn raid in Rafah on Monday that freed two hostages -- Fernando Simon
Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70 -- and killed around 100 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the operation as "perfect",
while the Palestinian foreign ministry called the deaths of dozens of Gazans
a "massacre".

The rare rescue mission came hours after Netanyahu spoke with Biden, who
reiterated his opposition to a major assault on Rafah.

But Netanyahu said "complete victory" cannot be achieved without eliminating
Hamas's last battalions there.

The United States has angered some Middle East allies by repeatedly refusing
to back a full ceasefire, with Washington saying it supports Israel's drive
to eradicate Hamas and calling for shorter pauses with hostage-prisoner swaps
instead.

A Hamas official told AFP they were waiting for the outcome of the Cairo
meeting but were "open to discussing any initiative that achieves an end to
aggression and war".

More than half of Gaza's 2.4 million people have sought refuge in Rafah,
pressed up against the Egypt border in makeshift camps where they face
outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea and a scarcity of food and water.

AFP saw some families, already displaced several times, dismantling their
tents and leaving in cars, vans or using horse-drawn carts.

- No safe place -

Netanyahu has said Israel would provide "safe passage" to civilians trying to
leave, but foreign governments, Gazans and aid groups have questioned where
they could go.

"There is no place that is currently safe in Gaza," said UN spokesman
Stephane Dujarric.

A report in the Wall Street Journal said Israel was proposing to create 15
campsites of around 25,000 tents each in southwestern Gaza as part of an
evacuation plan.

It cited Egyptian officials saying the camps and field hospitals would be
installed and administered by Egypt, although there has been no confirmation.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned Israel's planned military push
into Rafah "could lead to slaughter".

As smoke was seen rising over Rafah, Al Jazeera said two of its journalists
were severely wounded in an Israeli strike there.

Two other journalists with the broadcaster have been killed in the war, and
its Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh was wounded.

Israel's military said Tuesday three more soldiers had been killed in Gaza,
taking its losses to 232 since ground operations began on October 27.

It also said its forces had killed more than 30 "terrorists" in Khan Yunis --
southern Gaza's largest city that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks.

On a visit to the Gaza border, army chief Herzi Halevi said Israel's military
was "preparing for the fighting to continue for a long time".

"If we do not continue to strike Hamas with determination, it will be
difficult to bring back the hostages," he said.

Israel's military released a video Tuesday it said was from a security camera
and showed Gaza's Hamas chief and family members in a tunnel on October 10.

"The footage shows leader of Hamas and mass murderer, Yahya Sinwar, fleeing
with his children and one of his wives," army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage.

The war's impact has been felt widely, with violence involving Iran-backed
allies of Hamas surging across the Middle East.

Lebanon's Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel since the war
began.

On Tuesday the head of the Iran-backed movement, Hassan Nasrallah, said the
cross-border fire would stop only "when the attack on Gaza stops".