AFP
Negotiators from regional powers have been working around the clock to secure a Gaza truce by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
If Hamas agrees to release vulnerable hostages, the sick, the wounded and the elderly it could result in a six-week ceasefire in Gaza that could even start on Sunday.
According to a senior US official, Israel has broadly accepted a ceasefire deal with Hamas as the first American airdrops of humanitarian aid were carried out over the war-ravaged Gaza.
The United Nations has warned of famine in Gaza, after more than 100 people were left dead earlier this week in a frenzied scramble for food from a truck convoy delivering aid, with Israeli forces opening fire on the crowd.
The United States dropped 38 000 of their military meals from the air into Gaza on Saturday.
The US hopes any truce would create space for a more enduring peace.
The administration official said a ceasefire would also allow a "significant surge" in humanitarian aid to Gaza, with airdrops not seen as a replacement for full-scale relief convoys.
"None of these, maritime corridors, airdrops, are an alternative to the fundamental need to move assistance through as many land crossings as possible. That's the most efficient way to get aid in at scale," a second US official told reporters.
The UN Security Council issued a statement Saturday voicing "grave concern" over the acute food insecurity in Gaza and urging the unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid "at scale."
