Israel-Hamas war: US urges Hamas to accept Gaza cease-fire

US President Joe Biden has warned of a "very dangerous" situation if Israel and Hamas fail to reach a cease-fire in Gaza by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"If we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous," Biden told reporters. 

Ramadan begins on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

He added that a deal for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages Hamas is holding is in the hands of Hamas.

The US president also said there was "no excuse" for Israel not to allow more aid into Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Hamas to accept a plan for suspending the fighting with Israel.

"We have an opportunity for an immediate cease-fire that can bring hostages home that can dramatically increase the amount of humanitarian assistance getting to Palestinians who so desperately need it," Blinken said as he met the Qatari prime minister in Washington.

Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a key mediator, promised to be "persistent to make sure that this deal happens."

Blinken also decried the situation in Gaza as unacceptable and unsustainable, calling on Israel to maximize "every possible means" to get humanitarian aid into the enclave.

In Cairo, US and Hamas envoys met with Egyptian and Qatari mediators for a third day of protracted negotiations to end the fighting and free the hostages before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. With the Islamic calendar based on the lunar cycle, Ramadan will start on March 10 or 11, depending on the sighting of the moon.

The Israeli army says it has destroyed the largest Hamas tunnel ever discovered in the Gaza Strip.

There were several branches to the tunnel, which was found in the north of the coastal territory in mid-December. It was examined and dismantled in recent weeks, the military announced on Tuesday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also published videos showing the military blowing up parts of the tunnel and dropping concrete into other sections.

The IDF said vehicles could pass through the tunnel, which extended for more than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) at a depth of some 50 meters (about 160 feet).

Officials said the system was some 400 meters from the Erez border that crosses between Israel and Gaza but did not extend into Israeli territory.

Israeli media reports said the tunnel route leads to Jabalia, a refugee neighborhood in northern Gaza that is considered to be a Hamas stronghold.

International mediators are in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for talks on a truce to pause fighting in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that begins early next week. 

Negotiations to reach a truce in Gaza are continuing in Cairo but face several difficulties since some Palestinian factions, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), have not yet joined the talks. 

While the "basic points" of a framework agreement for the truce have already been agreed upon, the two sides are far from agreed on some aspects.

Envoys from the Islamist militant group Hamas and the United States were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators for a third day of negotiations on a six-week truce. 

The talks would see the exchange of dozens of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and increased aid to Gaza.

However, the Palestinian militant group Hamas does not hold "all the Israeli hostages," with the PIJ holding some, Spanish news agency EFE reported, citing Palestinian sources.

A high-ranking Egyptian source assured the Al Qahera News channel that "there are difficulties in the talks, but they continue anyway."

Israeli negotiators have so far stayed away from the talks, demanding that Hamas provide a list of living hostages.

The head of the Palestinian refugee agency UNWRA has warned the organization is "functioning hand-to-mouth" after 16 countries paused a total of $450 million in funding to it.

Donations from countries including Germany were put on hold after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of taking part in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants.

"The fate of the agency, and the millions of people who depend on it, hang in the balance," Lazzarini told the UN General Assembly.

Turkish police have detained seven people suspected of spying for Israeli intelligence, according to Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency.

Anadolu cited security sources as saying that one of those detained was a private detective and former public servant who is suspected of gathering information on Middle Eastern companies and individuals in Turkey, placing tracking devices and engaging in surveillance.

The Anadolu-cited sources said the detective had been trained by Israeli intelligence service Mossad in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, and received payments in cryptocurrency.

The detentions were part of an operation by Turkey's national intelligence agency, MIT, and Istanbul counter-terror police.

Turkish and Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the Anadolu report.

This is not the first time Turkish authorities have detained people under suspicion of spying for Mossad.

In January, a Turkish court ordered the arrest of 15 individuals and the deportation of eight others suspected of having links to Mossad, and in February seven more were detained for allegedly selling information to the Israeli intelligence service.

Turkey has warned Israel of "serious consequences" if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside of the Palestinian territories. Turkey hosts Hamas offices and does not consider the militant group to be a terrorist organization, unlike some of its NATO allies such as Germany and the US.

The head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, says that Palestinians detained by Israeli forces are reporting a "broad range" of abuses.

Lazzarini told a media briefing that detainees from Gaza said they were subject to threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and intimidation from dogs.

"We have seen these people coming back from detention, some of them for a couple of weeks, some of them for a couple of months, and most of them coming back [are] completely traumatized by the ordeal they have gone through," Lazzarini said.

"A number of people have been... debriefed about their ordeal, and we have indeed [compiled] an internal report about their experiences."

Israel has accused UNRWA of employing hundreds of Palestinian militants, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the body would not be a part of post-war Gaza.

A separate UN report on Monday said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence during its October 7 attacks that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians.

A strike by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebel group has damaged a container vessel in the Gulf of Adan, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

CENTCOM said that one of two anti-ship ballistic missiles launched by the group hit the Liberian-flagged, Swiss-owned ship.

There were no initial reports of injuries. CENTCOM said that the vessel did not request assistance.

A Houthi spokesperson said on Monday that they targeted the vessel with "a number of suitable naval missiles."

The Houthis are targeting international ships in the Red Sea, citing their opposition to Israel's offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The group also announced on Monday that they would require ships entering Yemeni waters to request a permit.

The UN envoy who focuses on sexual violence in conflict has said there are "reasonable grounds" to believe Hamas committed rape, "sexualized torture," and other inhumane treatment of women in its October attack in southern Israel.

Pramila Patten, who visited Israel and the West Bank with a nine-member technical team, said there were "reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing" when it came to hostages.

Patten said, based on first-hand accounts of released hostages, the team had "found clear and convincing information" that some women and children were subjected to the same sexual violence during their captivity.

The UN envoy added that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place" at the Nova music festival and its surroundings "with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped."

"There are further accounts of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses of women," Patten said.

"Other credible sources at the Nova music festival site described seeing multiple murdered individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were found naked from the waist down, some totally naked."

She said that some had been shot in the head, some were bound and tied to trees or poles. 

Patten's conclusions were drawn from witness testimony and circumstantial evidence which she said "may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence," but so far no victims of sexual violence have come forward. 

The UN envoy called for further investigations, stressing that "the true prevalence of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known."

The report comes nearly five months after the October 7 attacks, in which Hamas killed more than 1,100 people and took some 250 others hostage.

Israel has said it believes 130 of the 250 captives remain in Gaza, but that 31 have been killed.

Israel's war against Hamas has since razed much of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 30,000 people, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Ships must obtain a permit from the Houthi-controlled Maritime Affairs Authority before entering Yemeni waters, according to Houthi Telecommunications Minister Misfer al-Numair.

"[We] are ready to assist requests for permits and identify ships with the Yemeni Navy, and we confirm this is out of concern for their safety," Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement, reported al-Numair as saying.

Yemen's Houthi militia has carried out a number of attacks on ships in the Red Sea since the war in Gaza began in October. The Iran-backed group claims to target vessels linked to Israel in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Red Sea is one of the most important trade routes between Europe and Asia, and hundreds of commercial ships use it daily. Drone and missile attacks on ships have forced companies to divert their vessels to a longer route around southern Africa.

US Vice President Kamala Harris expressed "deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza" during talks in Washington on Monday with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz.

Gantz's trip to the American capital comes amid friction between the US and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and a post-war plan for the enclave.

The White House said Harris had expressed her "deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the recent horrific tragedy around an aid convoy in northern Gaza," in which more than 100 Palestinians were killed while trying to get supplies.

She "urged Israel to take additional measures" to increase the flow of aid.

Harris also called on Hamas to accept the terms on the table "whereby the release of hostages would result in an immediate six-week cease-fire and enable a surge of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza," according to the White House statement.

The US, like Israel and a number of other countries, has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Israel's military has accused the UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA of employing hundreds of militants in Gaza. The military said that Israel has shared this information with the United Nations.

"Over 450 UNRWA employees are military operatives in terror groups in Gaza. Over 450. This is no mere coincidence. This is systematic," military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

"We sent the information that I am sharing now, as well as further intelligence, to our international partners, including the UN," he added without elaborating on the evidence for the claim.

In January, Israel said that at least 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. 

The agency immediately fired the employees and the UN launched an independent internal investigation.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan, suspended funding to UNRWA following the Israeli allegations.

"UNRWA encourages any entity that has any information on the very serious allegations against UNRWA staff to share it with the ongoing UN investigation," Juliette Touma, UNRWA head of communications said.

Separately the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, warned of "a political decision" to try to eliminate the body and its operations.

Lazzarini said in a press conference late on Monday that he "has never been informed" or received any evidence to support Israel's claims. He also called out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "openly stating that UNRWA will not be part of post-war Gaza."

"UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them," he added.

km/lo,ab (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)