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Fate of Gaza truce hangs in balance

Death toll tops 2,000

AFP, Gaza City
The Gaza death toll rose over 2,000 yesterday as the clock ticked towards a midnight deadline and negotiators in Cairo strove to hammer out a decisive end to weeks of bloodshed.
As millions in and around Gaza enjoyed an eighth day of calm brought on by two back-to-back truce agreements, tensions were once again on the rise ahead of a new
deadline ending a five-day ceasefire which expires at 2100 GMT.
But there was little sign of any workable consensus emerging from ongoing talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Cairo.
The warring parties have just hours left to either: reach an agreement, accept a further extension, or risk a resumption of the fighting which has wreaked destruction across the densely-populated Mediterranean coastal enclave.
The aim is to broker a long-term arrangement to halt over a month of bloody fighting which erupted on July 8 although both sides have largely lowered their guns since August 4 thanks to a series of temporary truce arrangements.
Ahead of the deadline, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was travelling to Doha yesterday for talks with exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Qatar is a key backer of Hamas, the de facto rulers of Gaza.
As diplomatic efforts intensified, Gaza's health ministry said the death toll from the fighting rose above 2,000 as more people succumbed to injuries. The figures showed 2,016 people had been killed and another 10,196 wounded.
Among the dead were 541 children, 250 women and 95 elderly men.
Separately, the Israeli army confirmed that five of 64 soldiers killed in combat had died as a result of" friendly fire".
Despite the concern over the looming deadline, the streets of Gaza City were relatively full, bustling with women and children shopping for food, as men sat outside in the shade, chatting or watching the world go by.
Elderly people could be seen hitch-
ing a ride on a donkey cart, as pedestrians picked their way past piles of rubbish and debris from the war.
With the negotiations in their final stretch, meetings at the Egyptian intelligence headquarters resumed at 1200 GMT, but there was little indication that either side was willing to back down on its demands.
"The fifth day of the ceasefire and the negotiations between the resistance and the Zionist enemy ends today," Hamas's exiled deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuk wrote on his Facebook page shortly before the talks began.
"No positive results until now. Everything will be decided on the ground."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would only accept an agreement which contained "a clear answer" to its security needs, while Hamas has insisted there will be no deal without an end to Israel's eight-year blockade on Gaza.
Following talks with Meshaal in Doha, Abbas will travel to Cairo later in the week to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a Palestinian official told AFP.
In Israel, in absence of concrete information coming from the talks, most commentators were pessimistic about the warring sides reaching an agreement by midnight, saying the gaps are simply too big.
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett,
a hardline member of the security cabinet, said Israel should "immediately" abandon its attempt to talk, albeit indirectly, with Hamas.
"We have to stop the negotiations .. and take our fate into our own hands, based on very simple parameters: humanitarian aid 'yes', terror 'no'," he told army radio.
"We do not conduct negotiations, not even indirectly, with people who use terror against us directly."
In an indication Israel was shifting its thinking away from a negotiated truce agreement, it began implementing a series of unilateral measures to ease conditions in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israel said it had lifted a total ban on fishing which had been in place since July 8, allowing boats to go out to sea for up to three nautical miles.
Down at the fishing port, a few fishermen could be seen taking their boats out for an early catch, although they kept close to the shore, well within the new limit, an AFP correspondent said.
The talks are centred on an Egyptian proposal for a lasting ceasefire, which postpones discussions on the thorniest issues, such as Hamas' demands for a seaport and airport in Gaza, for another month.
Negotiations over exchanging the remains of two Israeli soldiers for the release of Palestinian prisoners would also be delayed for a month.