In a good way the ongoing talks seem to be to reach a ceasefire agreement to end the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, even after more than 100 Palestinians died last Thursday as they tried to access food in Gaza City, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

As CNN points out, US officials said on Friday that there is no indication that the discussions had significantly derailed; but much depends on Hamas’s expected response to what was discussed in Paris and Doha last week among the other countries involved: Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the US.

In the immediate aftermath of the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians in Gaza last Thursday, US officials said that the chaotic scenes added urgency to the hostage talks and ceasefire.

US President Joe Biden demanded an “immediate ceasefire” on Friday afternoon. “We are trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the return of the hostages and an immediate cease-fire in Gaza for at least the next six weeks and to allow an increase in aid to the Gaza Strip,” Biden said during the during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Meanwhile, a senior administration official said earlier on Friday that the US was still struggling to reach a deal by Ramadan after Israel warned that its forces would expand military operations in Rafah if no agreement was reached.

Technical teams are working on the basics of a possible deal this week in Doha, officials familiar with the talks say. On Tuesday, Qatari spokesman Majed al-Ansari said there were still disagreements over “numbers, proportions and troop movements [IDF]».

It is believed that Hamas will demand a greater proportion of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel if Hamas wishes to release female IDF hostages, as Israel is demanding.

Calls for investigation into Israeli soldiers firing amid food distribution to Palestinians in Gaza

At the same time, the international community is calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an investigation into responsibility after the tragedy amid humanitarian aid distribution, when Israeli fire and crowd trampling killed 115 people, according to Hamas.

Biden announced yesterday that the US would participate “in the coming days” in airdrops of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, where 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.

The situation is most alarming in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where shelling, fighting and looting make the distribution of aid virtually impossible.

Aid shipments, which require a green light from Israeli authorities, which have imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took power there in 2007, arrive via Egypt at Rafah, but their quantity is anything but. than enough to cover the enormous needs.

According to the director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), just 96 trucks were entering the enclave on average per day last week. “This is a fraction of what is needed,” said Samantha Power.

Several countries have already made aid drops, among them Jordan, with the support of others such as France, the Netherlands and Britain, as well as Egypt, in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

“Airdrops cannot and should not replace humanitarian access,” the non-governmental organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) commented today.

War and shortages have brought the health system to its knees in the Gaza Strip. Ten children have died due to “malnutrition and dehydration” in recent days, Hamas’ health ministry said yesterday.

“Effective Research”

Earlier Thursday, witnesses reported that Israeli soldiers opened fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians as they ran towards aid trucks in Gaza City, north.

The toll of this tragedy reached 115 deadwhile another 760 people were injured, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.

A spokesman for the Israeli army acknowledged that there had been, according to him, “limited” fire against the crowd of its soldiers who were “threatened” and assured that the majority of the dead were trampled due to panic or “carried away” by trucks.

The US, Israel’s main ally, has demanded “answers” from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, while insisting on calling for a “temporary ceasefire” deal.

The European Union called for an investigation and a humanitarian ceasefire, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “independent” and “effective” investigation.

A UN team, which visited the wounded yesterday at the Ash Shifa hospital in Gaza City, found “a large number of bullet injuries”, Mr Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said yesterday. He added that of the 700 who were treated at that hospital, about 200 remain there.