Good morning. Ten months after Israel’s invasion of Gaza began, the death toll compiled by health officials there has reached 40,000 – one in 50 of the territory’s prewar population. There are thousands more killed by Israeli forces whose bodies have not yet been recovered. Among those known to have died recently are Ayssel and Asser, four-day-old twins killed in an Israeli airstrike along with their mother and grandmother while their father, Mohamed Abuel-Qomasan, was out registering their births.
While a ceasefire is catastrophically overdue for Palestinians in Gaza, there is still no sign that one will soon be agreed. A new round of talks yesterday in Doha with Israel and mediators from the US, Egypt, and Qatar were said to have got off to a “promising start”. They are expected to continue today. But Hamas is not participating.
