US envoy says truce between Israel and Hezbollah is 'within reach' But there was no optimism for Gaza

BEIRUT (AP) A U.S. envoy says a deal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah is within reach after talks in Lebanon on Tuesday.

However, this optimism does not exist in the Gaza Strip, where the looting of nearly 100 humanitarian trucks by armed men has worsened an already serious food crisis.

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration's official for Israel and Lebanon, arrived as Hezbollah's allies in the Lebanese government said the militant group had responded positively to the proposal, which would involve the withdrawal of its fighters and Israeli ground forces from a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon. .

The buffer zone would be monitored by thousands of additional U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. Israel has called for a stronger control mechanism, potentially including the ability to carry out military operations against any threat from Hezbollah, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.

An Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese army base in the southern town of Sarafand on Tuesday, killing three soldiers. The army said it was the second deadly strike against Lebanese soldiers in as many days. The Israeli army had no immediate comment. At least 41 soldiers were killed by Israeli bombings last month, according to the Lebanese army.

Hochstein said he had very constructive talks with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who mediates on behalf of the group.

Specifically today, we continued to significantly narrow the gaps, the envoy told reporters after the two-hour meeting. These are ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. …It is now within our reach.

Berri said the situation was good in principle, although some technical details remained unresolved. The Lebanese side is waiting to hear the results of Hochstein's talks with Israeli officials, he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Israeli siege blocks food supply to northern Gaza for more than 40 days, UN says

The United Nations humanitarian office says virtually no food or humanitarian aid has been delivered to the far north of Gaza for more than 40 days due to the Israeli military siege.

Experts say famine may already have set in in the north, where Israel has been waging a week-long offensive that has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes.

So far in November, OCHA reports that 27 of 31 planned humanitarian missions in the north have been rejected by Israel and the remaining four have been severely hampered, UN spokesperson Stéphane said on Tuesday Dujarric. Devastated towns like Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and parts of Jabaliya remain isolated, he said.

Asked whether the UN believed Israel was trying to force the estimated 75,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south by withholding aid deliveries, Dujarric replied: I can't speak to the intentions of the Israeli government and Israeli policy. We just see the outcome and try to deal with it.

Israel says it places no restrictions on the amount of aid entering Gaza and is working to increase the amount. This month, it opened a new crossing into central Gaza. So far, a few dozen trucks have entered it.

The aid flow is near the lowest level of the entire 13-month war. So far this month, Israel says it has let into Gaza an average of 88 trucks a day, less than half the war's highest rate in April, which aid groups say was still too weak.

According to UNRWA, the United Nations agency that plays the largest role in humanitarian operations, only about half of the aid that actually arrives reaches the Palestinians, as Israeli military restrictions and fears of theft often prevent the agency to collect goods by truck at the border.

Food prices soar in central Gaza after looting

The theft from Gaza over the weekend of nearly 100 trucks loaded with food and other humanitarian aid drove up prices and caused shortages in central Gaza, where most of the population of 2.3 millions of people have fled and hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps. .

On Monday, a crowd of people waited outside a closed bakery in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the country. A displaced woman from Gaza City, identifying herself as Umm Shadi, said the price of flour had soared to 400 shekels (more than $100) a bag, if only it could be found.

Nora Muhanna, also displaced from Gaza City, said she left empty-handed after waiting five hours for a bag of bread for her children. From the start, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money, she says.

The United Nations said gunmen stole food and other aid from 98 trucks over the weekend, the largest such incident since the war began. It was not specified who was behind the theft.

Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the Israeli military ordered the convoy of 109 trucks to take an alternate, unknown route after aid was delivered through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that the trucks were broken into near the crossing itself.

Israel accuses criminal gangs and Hamas of stealing the aid, allegations denied by the militant group.

Al-Aqsa TV, operated by the militants, said Hamas-led security forces in Gaza launched an operation against the looters, killing 20 of them.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official based abroad, said the looters were young Bedouins who operate east of Rafah, near Israeli military positions.

The Hamas-led government had a police force that provided public security before the war, but this disappeared in many areas after being targeted by Israeli strikes. Hamas says it has taken measures to prevent looting and price gouging in markets.

But the biggest problem is not the theft, but the low amount of aid Israel allows into Gaza, said Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA's communications director.

Bringing aid into a war zone a few trucks at a time, what do we expect of a displaced, starving and traumatized population? she said.

Wars rage in Biden administrations in recent months

Hamas started the war in Gaza when its fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250. Around 100 hostages remain inside from Gaza, at least a third of them are believed to have died. .

The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom are women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their toll. The war has left much of the territory in ruins and forced around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents to flee, often repeatedly.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after the Hamas attack, in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas, another Iranian-backed militant group. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes and all-out war broke out in September.

Israeli bombings have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and injured nearly 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It also displaced nearly 1.2 million people, a quarter of the Lebanese population. On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians were killed by rockets, drones and missiles, and tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from their homes near the border.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip and Khaled from Cairo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

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See more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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