The Israeli army announced, on Saturday, the killing of two more soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza to 780 since October 2023.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army confirmed that four of its soldiers were killed and an officer was seriously injured in battles in northern Gaza.

Egypt and Qatar, in coordination with the United States of America, are holding consultations with Hamas and Israel in order to resume indirect negotiations and bring the views of the two parties closer together in order to reach a ceasefire agreement, according to what Egyptian and Qatari sources say.

The Egyptian Cairo News Channel quoted an Egyptian security source as saying, on Saturday, that senior officials from Fatah and Hamas are meeting in Cairo to discuss forming a committee to manage governance in the Gaza Strip after the war.

The source added that the meeting comes within the framework of Cairo’s efforts “with the Palestinian and Israeli parties in order to reach a calm in the Gaza Strip and allow the entry of more humanitarian aid into the Strip.”

Sources close to the talks told Reuters that leaders from Hamas and Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, met in Cairo last October to discuss forming the committee based on a proposal submitted by Egypt, but the talks were postponed to be discussed at a later time.

The sources added that the committee will consist of independent Palestinian figures who are not aligned with a particular movement, in order to address the issue of who will manage the Gaza Strip after the end of the war that has been going on for more than a year.

Israel rejects Hamas having any role in Gaza after the end of the war and says that it also does not trust the Palestinian Authority led by Abbas to manage the Strip.

Mediation efforts by Egypt and Qatar, supported by the United States, have so far failed to reach a truce that would end the Gaza war and facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas, in addition to Israel’s release of thousands of Palestinians.

Hamas is pressing for an end to hostilities, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the war will not end until the movement is dismantled.

Izzat al-Rishq, a leader in Hamas, rejected any proposals to reach a limited or temporary truce, describing them as attempts to “throw ashes in the eyes.”

Al-Rishq said in a statement, “We deal positively with any proposals and ideas that guarantee the cessation of the aggression and the withdrawal of the occupation from Gaza.”

The conflict is still causing large numbers of deaths, as medics said that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, on Saturday.

Palestinian health officials said that at least 60 people have been killed in Israeli military strikes on Gaza since Friday.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported, on Saturday, that the number of Palestinian deaths as a result of the Israeli military campaign on the Strip since October 7, 2023 has risen to 43,314, while the number of injured has increased to 10,2019.

The war broke out after gunmen led by Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israeli statistics indicate that it led to the death of about 1,200 people and the taking of 251 hostages