The United States hailed a "promising start" to Gaza ceasefire talks Thursday, as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the spread of a war that the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said has killed 40,000.
The conflict sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel has devastated Gaza, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a towering humanitarian crisis.
Talks involving CIA director William Burns opened in the Qatari capital Doha, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
It was not immediately clear if Hamas had sent any delegates to the meeting, which Israel planned to attend.
"Today is a promising start," Kirby told reporters in Washington, adding: "There remains a lot of work to do."
The talks were expected to continue on Friday, he said.
"We need to see the hostages released, relief for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, security for Israel and lower tensions in the region, and we need to see those things as soon as possible," he added.
So far, there has been only one, week-long truce in November, when Hamas released 105 hostages seized in the October 7 attack, the Israelis among them in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
A Hamas official said the movement would demand the implementation of the plan that Biden said would start with an initial six-week "complete ceasefire", the release of hostages and a "surge" in humanitarian aid as the warring sides negotiate "a permanent end to hostilities".
The latest diplomatic push comes as the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the besieged Palestinian territory had surpassed 40,000 -- which UN human rights chief Volker Turk called a "grim milestone".
"Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war," he added.
The Gaza ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and Hamas member casualties, said the tally included 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours.
- 'Time is now' -
In Beirut on Wednesday, visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said a deal in Gaza "would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war".
He added: "We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now."
Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The Palestinian group also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Mediation efforts have repeatedly stalled since a week-long truce in November when militants released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
One of the Palestinians freed at that time was among two people killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian sources said.
Israel's military said a strike killed two armed members of Hamas.
Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel have said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to prolong the war for political gain.
Israeli media this week quoted Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as privately telling a parliamentary committee that a hostage release deal "is stalling... in part because of Israel".
Netanyahu's office accused Gallant of adopting an "anti-Israel narrative" and said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is "the only obstacle to a hostage deal".
- Consultations -
US news website Axios, citing US officials, said former president Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election, spoke with Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
The latest mediation push follows the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader and truce negotiator Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. His killing sent fears of a wider conflagration soaring.
Iran and its regional allies blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Western leaders have urged Tehran to avoid hitting Israel over Haniyeh's killing, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Hezbollah's military commander.
A spokesman for Netanyahu told AFP that the heads of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet internal security service would attend the Doha talks.
Qatar was "working to ensure that there is Hamas representation as well", State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.
- Bloodied children -
Fallout from the conflict has drawn in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
More than 370 Hezbollah members have been killed in 10 months of near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces, according to an AFP tally, more than the Iran-backed movement lost in the 2006 war with Israel.
On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, including in the annexed Golan Heights, according to military figures.
In Gaza, where the war has destroyed much of the territory's housing and other infrastructure, relatively few incidents were reported on Thursday.
In the most deadly bombing, rescuers said air strikes killed five people in Gaza City.
Israel's military said troops had killed about 20 militants in Rafah, southern Gaza.
On Wednesday, dead and wounded including bloodied children arrived at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis after an Israeli strike.
"I was not pro-Hamas but now I support them and I want to fight," one grieving man shouted.
Source: AFP