THE United States Middle East envoy was set to host top officials from countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire today, a US State Department official said.

Steve Witkoff was due to meet in Miami with officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.

The meeting was to review the implementation of Phase 2 of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that many observers argue has barely been observed by Israel in its first stage.

Top Hamas official Bassem Naim said that the Miami talks must end Israeli ceasefire violations in Gaza.

The Hamas political bureau member said: “Our people expect these talks to result in an agreement to put an end to ongoing Israeli lawlessness, halt all violations and compel the occupation to abide by the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.”

During the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed.

Mr Naim said the new talks should also boost the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

He added that the Miami talks should also address how to implement the plan in a way to ensure “sustainable stability, launches a comprehensive reconstruction process and paves the way for a political track enabling Palestinians to govern themselves, culminating in a fully sovereign and independent state.”

Meanwhile, as the talks go on, Palestinians in Gaza are struggling with a lack of aid. Food remains scarce with areas of the territory still hit by famine.

But the spread of famine appears to have been averted in Gaza even though the situation remains critical with the entire Palestinian territory still facing starvation, the world’s leading authority on food crises said today.

A new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, (IPC), comes months after the group said famine was occurring in Gaza City and likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to humanitarian aid restrictions.

There were “notable improvements” in food security and nutrition following an October ceasefire and no famine has been detected, the report said.

But the IPC warned that the situation remains “highly fragile” and the entire Gaza Strip is in danger of starvation with nearly 2,000 people facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

The Israeli military agency in charge of co-ordinating aid to Gaza said today that it strongly rejected the findings of the IPC report.