Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
The US and Israel on Monday said “constructive engagement” took place during a meeting about a possible Israeli military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The conversation comes as the US has pushed its ally Israel to commit to staying out of Rafah until it has a viable plan to protect the more than one million civilians sheltering there.
A joint statement issued by the White House said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke online with Israeli counterparts after previous attempts to meet in Washington fell through.
“The two sides over the course of two hours had a constructive engagement on Rafah,” the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group said.
“They agreed that they share the objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah.”
Rafah, which borders Egypt, is hosting about 1.4 million people, the UN estimates, including many who have fled other parts of the Palestinian enclave due to Israeli military operations.
President Joe Biden has suggested that any Israeli plan to enter Rafah without accounting for civilians would be a “red line”.
Mr Biden in a March phone call asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send senior officials to Washington to hear alternatives to such an operation.
However, a US abstention on a UN Security Council resolution that called for a Gaza ceasefire saw Mr Netanyahu cancel his inter-agency delegation trip to Washington.
He later made a U-turn, allowing senior advisers to communicate with counterparts in Washington and opening up the opportunity for Monday's virtual meeting.
“The US side expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah,” the joint statement continued.
“The Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account and to have follow up discussions between experts.”
Washington has said it would present alternatives to tackling Hamas battalions – that Israel claims are located in Rafah – while protecting civilians.
Authorities also said that in-person meetings of the Strategic Consultative Group would take place “as early as next week”.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Opening Rugby Championship fixtures:Games can be watched on OSN Sports
Saturday: Australia v New Zealand, Sydney, 1pm (UAE)
Sunday: South Africa v Argentina, Port Elizabeth, 11pm (UAE)
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