Truce efforts continue after new proposal from Hamas

Israel to send delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on securing hostages’ release

GAZA CITY - Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war continued on March 16 after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group which also called for more aid into Gaza, where famine threatens and the first food shipment by sea was unloaded.

Israel said it will send a delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on a possible deal.

It also advanced plans for a military operation in Rafah, where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge from more than five months of war and deprivation.

The US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) on March 16 said its team had finished unloading almost 200 tonnes of food, the first shipment to arrive on a new maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.

"All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza," WCK said in a statement.

AFP footage on March 15 showed WCK's partner, the Open Arms vessel, towing a barge with the aid close to the rubble-strewn shore of north Gaza. Open Arms had sailed from Cyprus on March 12.

The United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing northern Gaza for deliveries of food and other aid.

Residents say they have resorted to eating wild plants and animal fodder, and some have stormed the few aid trucks that have made it through.

"Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies," Mr Dominic Allen, of the United Nations Population Fund, said after visiting Gaza's north.

With the situation increasingly dire, multiple nations began daily aid airdrops over Gaza, and the new sea corridor is to be complemented by a temporary pier which United States troops are on their way to build.

But air and sea missions are no alternative to land deliveries, UN officials and aid groups say.