KATHMANDU, MARCH 4

A top member of Israel's wartime Cabinet is meeting with US officials in Washington while talks are underway in Egypt to broker a cease-fire in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins next week.

Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, traveled for talks with several senior US administration officials this week.

An official from Netanyahu's far-right Likud party said Gantz did not have approval from the prime minister for his meetings in Washington and that Netanyahu gave the Cabinet official a 'tough talk' - underscoring the widening crack within Israel's wartime leadership nearly six months into the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel did not send a delegation to cease-fire talks in Cairo because it is waiting for answers from Hamas on two questions, according to an Israeli official.

Israeli media reported that the government is waiting to learn which of the hostages seized by Hamas in an Oct. 7 attack are alive and how many Palestinian prisoners Hamas seeks in exchange for each.

The UN says a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million people face starvation.

The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has soared above 30,000 since the war began nearly five months ago when Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage.