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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out air strikes Tuesday despite an ongoing ceasefire, after the Israeli military accused Hamas of attacking its troops and violating the US-brokered truce.At least 30 people were killed in strikes targeting several parts of Gaza, said a spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas.However, US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire was holding despite Tuesday’s “skirmishes”.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza, his office said, as Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza.”Hamas’s attack today on IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement.While Katz did not say where the troops were attacked, Hamas said its fighters had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah”.In comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House, Vance said the ceasefire was holding.”That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes,” said the vice president, one of several top US officials to rush to Israel last week to shore up the fragile ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump.”We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond — but I think the president’s peace is going to hold,” he added.- Strikes on Gaza -Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least three strikes were carried out, while the territory’s main Al-Shifa hospital said one hit its backyard.Five people were killed when their vehicle was hit by an air strike, the agency reported.Hamas had announced it would hand over the body of another hostage on Tuesday as demanded by Israel under the ceasefire deal.During the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage.A row over the last remaining bodies of deceased hostages has threatened to derail the ceasefire.Israel accuses Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the Palestinian Islamist group says it will take time to locate the remains amid Gaza’s war-ravaged ruins.Hamas later said it would delay Tuesday’s handover, adding that Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”.In a further statement on Telegram, Hamas’s armed wing said it had found the bodies of two hostages on Tuesday.It did not say when it would hand them over.- ‘We want to rest’ -Hamas had come under mounting pressure after it returned on Monday partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce.Hamas had said the remains were the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu’s office.Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian accused Hamas of staging the discovery of the remains.”I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains… inside of it, covered it back up with dirt, and handed it over to the Red Cross,” she told journalists.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to “act decisively against these violations” and accused Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages.Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognisable.- ‘Third set of remains’ -“The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he told AFP.Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza killed at least 68,531 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.Despite the ceasefire, the toll has continued to climb as more bodies are found under the rubble.On the ground in Gaza, 60-year-old Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed told AFP he was afraid the war would start again because of the mounting pressure on Hamas.”Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war,” he said.”We want to rest. I believe the war will come back.”

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out air strikes Tuesday despite an ongoing ceasefire, after accusing Hamas of attacking its troops and violating the US-brokered truce.At least 11 people were killed in strikes targeting several parts of Gaza, the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas, said.However, US Vice President JD Vance said that the ceasefire was holding despite Tuesday’s “skirmishes”.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza, his office said, as Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza.”Hamas’s attack today on IDF soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement.While Katz did not reveal where the troops were attacked, Hamas said its fighters had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah”.In comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House, Vance said the ceasefire was holding.”That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes,” said the vice president, one of several top US officials to rush to Israel last week to shore up the fragile ceasefire.”We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond — but I think the president’s peace is going to hold,” he added. Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least three strikes were carried out, while the territory’s main Al-Shifa hospital said one hit the backyard of the facility.Five people were killed when their vehicle was hit by an air strike, the agency reported.Hamas had announced it would hand over the body of another hostage on Tuesday as demanded by Israel under the ceasefire deal.The group had come under mounting pressure after it returned on Monday partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce.It later said it would delay Tuesday’s handover, adding that Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”.In AFP footage, several masked Hamas fighters are seen emerging from a tunnel carrying a body wrapped in a white plastic bag, believed to be that of a hostage Hamas had planned to hand over on Tuesday.Behind them trails a crowd of men and children, some raising their mobile phones to capture the moment.- ‘We want to rest’ – Hamas handed over late on Monday what it said was the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu’s office.His office decried a “clear violation of the agreement” after identification procedures revealed the latest remains belonged “to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago”.Israeli government spokeswoman, Shosh Bedrosian, accused Hamas of staging the discovery of Tzarfati’s remains.”I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains of Ofir inside of it, covered it back up with dirt, and handed it over to the Red Cross,” she told journalists.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to “act decisively against these violations” and accused Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages.Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognisable.- ‘Third set of remains’ -“The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he told AFP. Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.On the ground in Gaza, 60-year-old Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed told AFP he was afraid the war would start again because of the mounting pressure on Hamas.”Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war,” he said.”We want to rest. I believe the war will come back.”During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage, most of whom had been released, rescued or recovered before this month’s ceasefire.The attack itself resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza killed at least 68,531 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.Despite the ceasefire, the toll has continued to climb as more bodies are found under the rubble.The hostage forum said that this was the third time remains belonging to Ofir Tzarfati had been returned, after his body was recovered at the end of 2023, and additional remains were returned in March 2024.”The circle supposedly ‘closed’ back in December 2023, but it never truly closes,” Tzarfati’s family said in the statement from the forum.

Fears mounted in Sudan on Tuesday, three days after paramilitaries seized the key city of El-Fasher, amid reports of mass atrocities and the killing of five Red Crescent volunteers in Kordofan.The capture of El-Fasher, the historic heart of Darfur, has sparked fears of mass killings reminiscent of the region’s darkest days.After an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment, the city is now under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — descendants of the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide two decades ago.The paramilitary group, locked in a brutal war with the army since April 2023, launched a final assault on the city in recent days, seizing the army’s last positions.In the neighbouring region of North Kordofan, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers had been killed in Bara on Monday, and that three others were missing after the RSF took control of the town on Saturday.Analysts say Sudan is now effectively partitioned along an east-west axis, with the RSF running a parallel government across Darfur while the army is entrenched along the Nile and Red Sea in the north, east and centre.For many, El-Fasher’s fall revives memories of the 2000s, when the Janjaweed razed villages and killed hundreds of thousands in what is believed to be one of the worst genocides of the 21st century. But this time, the atrocities are not hidden. The army-aligned foreign ministry said the crimes were “shamelessly documented by the perpetrators themselves”.- ‘Rwanda-level’ -Since the city’s fall on Sunday, RSF fighters have shared videos reportedly showing executions and abuse of civilians.An RSF-led coalition said Tuesday it would form a committee to verify the authenticity of videos and allegations, adding that many of the videos are “fabricated” by the army.The United Nations warned of “ethnically motivated violations and atrocities” while the African Union condemned “escalating violence” and “alleged war crimes”. Pro-democracy groups described “the worst violence and ethnic cleansing” since Sunday as the army-allied Joint Forces accused the RSF of killing over 2,000 civilians.The UN said more than 26,000 fled El-Fasher in just two days, most on foot towards Tawila, 70 kilometres west.”We’re watching Rwanda-level mass extermination of people who are trapped inside,” said Nathaniel Raymond, a US war investigator and executive director of Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL). In 1994 during the genocide in Rwanda, an estimated 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were killed in one of the 20th century’s worst atrocities.”The level, speed and totality of violence in Darfur is unlike anything I’ve seen,” Raymond, who has been documenting war crimes across the world over the past 25 years, told AFP.Around 177,000 civilians remain trapped in El-Fasher, according to the UN’s migration agency, after the RSF built a 35-mile (56 kilometre) earthen berm sealing off food, medicine and escape routes.Once the seat of the Darfur Sultanate, a centuries-old African kingdom that flourished long before Khartoum existed, El-Fasher’s streets are now strewn with charred vehicles and bodies, smoke rising over shattered neighbourhoods. One clip on Monday appeared to show corpses beside burnt-out cars. Another showed an RSF gunman firing into a crowd of civilians — identified by AFP as a notorious fighter known from execution videos on his TikTok account, where he boasts of killings in newly captured areas.- A new power map -Pro-democracy activists also accused the RSF of executing all wounded people receiving treatment at the Saudi Hospital in El-Fasher.Satellite analysis by Yale’s HRL revealed door-to-door killings, mass graves, red patches and bodies visible on the city’s berm, consistent with eyewitness accounts. “We think those red patches are blood pools from bodies bleeding out,” said Raymond, describing imagery showing “objects consistent with human bodies” and trenches filled with corpses.To many Sudanese, these tactics are hauntingly familiar.But Yale University’s Raymond said that the RSF has grown deadlier and more militarily equipped with time.”These people have an air force… no one can hide because they can see them from the air,” he said.Raymond also warned the current violence would not stop at El-Fasher but would spread to other non-Arab communities.The Zaghawa, the dominant group in El-Fasher, have long seen the RSF’s advance as an existential threat. In 2023, the RSF was accused of massacres in West Darfur’s capital, El-Geneina, killing up to 15,000 people from the Masalit — another non-Arab group.”The prospects for peace are very minimal,” said Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair. “Neither the army nor the RSF, for strategic or battlefield reasons, is willing to commit to a ceasefire or genuine peace talks,” she told AFP. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and triggered the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. Both sides stand accused of widespread atrocities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip, after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.Minutes later, Hamas said it would delay handing over the remains of another hostage under the terms of the truce deal over what it called Israel’s truce “violations”.”Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” a statement from the premier’s office said, without elaborating.The Palestinian militant group had earlier said it would hand over another hostage body, scheduled on Tuesday, amid mounting Israeli pressure after Hamas returned only the partial remains of a previously recovered captive.  “We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation’s violations,” Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement, adding that any Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”.Hamas handed over late on Monday what it said was the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu’s office.In returning only the partial remains of an already returned captive, Netanyahu’s office and a campaign group representing hostage families accused Hamas of breaching the ceasefire.Netanyahu’s office decried a “clear violation of the agreement” after identification procedures revealed the latest remains belonged “to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago”.Netanyahu’s latest instructions came after he held security consultations earlier in the day.Israeli government spokeswoman, Shosh Bedrosian, later told journalists that “in terms of consequences for Hamas nothing is off the table right now, but all of this is in full coordination with the United States, with (US) President (Donald) Trump and his team.”Bedrosian also accused Hamas of staging the discovery of Tzarfati’s remains.”I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains of Ofir inside of it, covered it back up with dirt, and handed it over to the Red Cross,” she said.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to take action.”In light of Hamas’s severe breach of the agreement last night… the Israeli government cannot and must not ignore this, and must act decisively against these violations,” the forum said, accusing Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages.- ‘Break its legs’ -Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year conflict had left locations unrecognisable.”The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he told AFP. Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.Hamas also accused Israel of ceasefire violations, with the territory’s health ministry saying that at least 94 people had been killed in Israeli fire since the truce began.On the ground in Gaza, 60-year-old Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed told AFP he was afraid the war would start again because of the mounting pressure on Hamas.”Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war,” he said.”We want to rest. I believe the war will come back.”Israel’s far-right national security minister accused Hamas of stalling the release of the remaining bodies.”It is time to break its legs once and for all,” Itamar Ben Gvir wrote on X.- Third set of remains -During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage, most of whom had been released, rescued or recovered before this month’s ceasefire.The attack itself resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza killed at least 68,531 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.Despite the ceasefire, the toll has continued to climb as more bodies are found under the rubble.Ofir Tzarfati was at the Nova music festival on October 7 when he was “abducted into captivity, where he was murdered”, the hostage forum said.It added that this was the third time remains belonging to him had been returned, after his body was recovered at the end of 2023, and additional remains were returned in March 2024.”This is the third time we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son,” Tzarfati’s family were quoted as saying in the statement from the forum.”The circle supposedly ‘closed’ back in December 2023, but it never truly closes.”

The paramilitary capture of El-Fasher, Sudan’s oldest capital and Darfur’s historic heart, sparked fears Tuesday of mass killings reminiscent of the region’s darkest days. After an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment, the city is now under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — descendants of the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide two decades ago. The paramilitary group, locked in a brutal war with the army since April 2023, launched a final assault on the city in recent days, seizing the army’s last positions.Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan confirmed the withdrawal on Monday, calling it a tactical redeployment to “a safer location” but vowing to “fight until this land is purified”. Analysts say Sudan is now effectively partitioned along an east-west axis, with the RSF running a parallel government across Darfur while the army is entrenched along the Nile and Red Sea in the north, east and centre.For many, El-Fasher’s fall revives memories of the 2000s, when the Janjaweed razed villages and killed hundreds of thousands in what is believed to be one of the worst genocides of the 21st century. But this time, the atrocities are not hidden. The army-aligned foreign ministry said the crimes were “shamelessly documented by the perpetrators themselves”.Since the city’s fall on Sunday, RSF fighters have shared videos reportedly showing executions and abuse of civilians.An RSF-led coalition said on Tuesday it would form a committee to verify the authenticity of videos and allegations, adding that many of the videos are “fabricated” by the army.The United Nations warned of “ethnically motivated violations and atrocities” while the African Union condemned “escalating violence” and “alleged war crimes”. Pro-democracy groups described “the worst violence and ethnic cleansing” since Sunday as the army-allied Joint Forces accused the RSF of killing over 2,000 civilians.The UN said more than 26,000 fled El-Fasher in just two days, most on foot towards Tawila, 70 kilometres west.Some survivors, among those arriving traumatised and injured in Tawila, told AFP of “scenes of genocide”. – ‘Rwanda-level’ -“We’re watching Rwanda-level mass extermination of people who are trapped inside,” said Nathaniel Raymond, a US war investigator and executive director of Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL). In 1994 during the genocide in Rwanda, an estimated 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were killed in one of the 20th century’s worst atrocities.”The level, speed and totality of violence in Darfur is unlike anything I’ve seen,” Raymond, who has been documenting war crimes across the world over the past 25 years, told AFP.Around 177,000 civilians remain trapped in El-Fasher, according to the UN’s migration agency, after the RSF built a 35-mile (56 kilometre) earthen berm sealing off food, medicine and escape routes.Once the seat of the Darfur Sultanate, a centuries-old African kingdom that flourished long before Khartoum existed, El-Fasher’s streets are now strewn with charred vehicles and bodies, smoke rising over shattered neighbourhoods. One clip on Monday appeared to show corpses beside burnt-out cars. Another showed an RSF gunman firing into a crowd of civilians — identified by AFP as a notorious fighter known from execution videos on his TikTok account, where he boasts of killings in newly captured areas. Satellite analysis by Yale’s HRL revealed door-to-door killings, mass graves, red patches and bodies visible on the city’s berm, consistent with eyewitness accounts. “We think those red patches are blood pools from bodies bleeding out,” said Raymond, describing imagery showing “objects consistent with human bodies” and trenches filled with corpses.- A new power map -To many Sudanese, these tactics are hauntingly familiar.But Yale University’s Raymond said that the RSF has grown deadlier and more militarily equipped with time.”These people have an air force… no one can hide because they can see them from the air,” he said.Raymond also warned the current violence would not stop at El-Fasher but would spread to other non-Arab communities.The Zaghawa, the dominant group in El-Fasher, have long seen the RSF’s advance as an existential threat. In 2023, the RSF was accused of massacres in West Darfur’s capital, El-Geneina, killing up to 15,000 people from the Masalit — another non-Arab group.Representatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates met in Washington last week to press for a ceasefire and a transitional civilian government excluding both the RSF and the army, but the talks yielded no progress. The UN accuses the UAE of arming the RSF, a charge Abu Dhabi denies, while observers say the army has received backing from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. Riyadh on Tuesday condemned what it called the RSF’s “human rights violations” in El-Fasher. “The prospects for peace are very minimal,” said Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair. “Neither the army nor the RSF, for strategic or battlefield reasons, is willing to commit to a ceasefire or genuine peace talks,” she told AFP. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and triggered the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. Both sides stand accused of widespread atrocities.

Reports were mounting on Tuesday of ethnically motivated atrocities in the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher since its capture by paramilitaries, with allies of the army accusing fighters of executing “more than 2,000” civilians.El-Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after more than 18 months of brutal siege warfare, giving the group control over every state capital in the vast Darfur region.Allies of the army, the Joint Forces, said on Tuesday that the RSF “committed heinous crimes against innocent civilians in the city of El-Fasher, where more than 2,000 unarmed citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them women, children and the elderly”.Local groups and international NGOs had warned that El-Fasher’s fall could trigger mass atrocities, fears that Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab said were coming true.The monitor, which relies on open source intelligence and satellite imagery, said the city “appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution”.This included what appeared to be “door-to-door clearance operations” in the city.In a report published on Monday, it said the actions of the RSF “may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity and may rise to the level of genocide”.The same day, UN rights chief Volker Turk spoke of a growing risk of “ethnically motivated violations and atrocities” in El-Fasher.His office said it was “receiving multiple, alarming reports that the Rapid Support Forces are carrying out atrocities, including summary executions”.Pro-democracy activists, meanwhile, said El-Fasher residents had endured “the worst forms of violence and ethnic cleansing” since the RSF claimed control.A video released by local activists and authenticated by AFP shows a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at point-blank range.The paramilitaries have a track record of atrocities, having killed as many as 15,000 civilians from non-Arab groups in the West Darfur capital of El-Geneina.The army, which has been fighting the RSF since April 2023, has also been accused of war crimes.- ‘Harder to unwind’ -More than a year and a half of siege warfare made El-Fasher one of the grimmest places in a war that the UN has labelled among the world’s worst humanitarian crises.Displacement camps outside the city were officially declared to be in famine, while inside it, people turned to animal fodder for food.The UN warned before the city’s fall that 260,000 people remained trapped there without aid, half of them children.The African Union’s chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf on Tuesday expressed “deep concern over the escalating violence and reported atrocities”, and condemned “alleged war crimes and ethnically targeted killings of civilians”. The Sudanese army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said on Monday that his forces had withdrawn from El-Fasher “to a safer location”, acknowledging the loss of the strategic city.He pledged to fight “until this land is purified”, but analysts said that Sudan was now effectively partitioned along an east-west axis, with the RSF having already set up a parallel government.Alan Boswell, project director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, told AFP: “The longer this war drags on, this division will likely only grow more concrete and harder to unwind.”- Foreign backers -Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, called the city’s capture a “turning point” that showed “the political path is the only option to end the civil war”.The UAE has been accused by the UN of supplying the RSF with weapons, a charge it denies. It is also a member of the so-called Quad — alongside the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt — which is working for a negotiated peace.The group has proposed a ceasefire and a transitional civilian government that excludes both the army and the RSF from power.Talks last week in Washington involving the Quad made no progress.The army has its own foreign backers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey, observers have reported. They too have denied the claims.In March, the army retook full control of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, but with both sides now having achieved significant gains neither appears willing to compromise in negotiations.