Mediators in Cairo have made a renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire, but differences remained as fighting raged on in the Palestinian territory gripped by desperate food shortages.
US, Qatari and Hamas envoys travelled to the Egyptian capital for the latest effort towards a six-week truce, stepped-up aid deliveries and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
But sticking points remained, including a Hamas demand that the Israeli armed forces entirely withdraw from Gaza after almost five months of devastating war.
And Israel, which has so far announced no plans to join the Egypt talks, has demanded Hamas provide it with a list of all 130 remaining captives, including more than 30 it fears are dead.
One source briefed on the talks had said yesterday that Israel could stay away from Cairo unless Hamas first presented its full list of hostages who are still alive.
A Palestinian source told Reuters Hamas had so far rejected that demand.
In past negotiations Hamas has sought to avoid discussing the wellbeing of individual hostages until after terms for their release are set.
A Hamas official said that, if Israel were to meet its demands, this would "pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours".
Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, told Qatar's Al-Araby TV that the group insisted on a complete, rather than "temporary", ceasefire and on "ending the aggression against our people".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected pulling troops out of Gaza before Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.
The Hamas official also said the group would demand "the entry of at least 400 to 500 trucks per day" carrying food, medicine and fuel as part of a truce deal.
Israel had yet to confirm that it has accepted the truce plan or whether it would attend the Cairo talks.
Despite the latest push to halt the fighting sparked by Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel, Israeli bombing and urban combat again rocked Gaza, home to 2.4 million people, most of whom have been displaced.
Another 90 Palestinians were killed within 24 hours, said Hamas-ruled Gaza's health ministry, which put the war's overall death toll at 30,410, mostly women and children.
Two of the latest victims, twin babies Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza, were buried today as their mother Rania wept in agony, an AFP photographer said.
A relative, Shehda Abu Anza, said "only civilians" were in the house when it was bombed, killing 14 members of one family.
"All of them were sleeping when suddenly a missile hit and destroyed the whole house," he told AFP as residents searched the rubble with their bare hands, for bodies and also to salvage scarce food.
Hopes for the first pause in fighting since November increased last week after a previous round of talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt in Doha and indications from US President Joe Biden that an agreement was close.
A senior US official said that the framework for a six-week pause in fighting was in place, with Israel's agreement and it now depended on Hamas agreeing to release hostages it has held captive in Gaza since its attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.
The official told reporters: "The path to a ceasefire right now, literally at this hour, is straightforward.
"And there's a deal on the table. There's a framework deal. The Israelis have more or less accepted it.
"The onus right now is on Hamas."
Mr Biden said he hopes a ceasefire will be in place by the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which starts on 10 March.
Mr Biden and other world leaders are under growing pressure to ease the increasingly desperate plight of Palestinians after five months of war and an Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The United Nations said a quarter of the population, 576,000 people, is one step from famine.
At least 15 children have died over the past few days from malnutrition and dehydration at Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital, the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement.
"We fear for the lives of 6 (other) children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea at the hospital's intensive care unit as a result of the cessation of the electric generator and oxygen and the weakness of medical capabilities," Ashraf Al-Qidra, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson, said
Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces killed 118 people trying to reach a relief convoy near Gaza City on Thursday, prompting global outrage over the humanitarian crisis.
Subsequently, Mr Biden announced plans for the US to airdrop aid yesterday, which also involved Jordanian forces.
Other countries including Jordan and France had already conducted airdrops of aid into Gaza.
Humanitarian crisis
The US has for months been calling for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, something Israel has resisted.
Some experts said being forced to resort to costly, inefficient airdrops was the latest demonstration of Washington's limited influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
Israel denies restricting humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.
The US military aircraft released 38,000 meals over Gaza, falling far short of the assistance needed by the territory's 2.2 million people.
US authorities said it was the first of what would be a sustained effort.
Israel disputes the health ministry's death toll in the food convoy incident and said most victims were trampled or runover.
Israel launched the offensive in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas, whose militants entered Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting another 253, according to Israeli tallies.
The assault has devastated Gaza.
Much of the Hamas-run enclave has been destroyed and more than 30,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands more injured, according to Gaza health authorities.
Fighting continued in the early hours of this morning, as residents reported the sound of heavy shelling and tanks advancing around Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza.
Around Rafah, another southern city where more than one million Palestinians have been seeking refuge on the border with Egypt, authorities said 25 people were killed yesterday and into this morning.
They included 11 who died when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent near a hospital and another 14 in one family, who died when a strike hit a house.
