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Tributes paid to killed aid staff as more charities pause Gaza work - BBC News Tributes paid to killed aid staff as more charities pause Gaza work - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Insaf Abbas Sebastian Usher
BBC News BBC Arab Affairs Editor
Hopes for a truce in Gaza have faded after a flurry of activity ahead of Ramadan - and the latest comments emerging over the status of negotiations suggest that little progress has been made.
A friend of James Kirby, one of the three British men killed in Gaza, has told the BBC that seeing the suffering of the people in Gaza would have "made him want to do something immediately". The prime minister of Qatar, which has been playing a key role in mediation, says the obstacles are the same as back in February.
Mark Townsend served with James in Afghanistan in 2011, and they quickly became close friends. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani did say that the Hamas demand for displaced Palestinians to be able to return to all parts of Gaza had become a major bone of contention.
"I did numerous patrols with him. I was a medic and taught him advanced first aid, which he used many times both in Afghanistan and beyond. The political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has also reiterated that his movement is sticking to all its conditions for a truce; Hamas wants an end to the war, an influx of aid, the return of Gazans to their homes, a prisoner exchange with Israel and reconstruction.
"No matter how tired at the end of a patrol, he always made sure everyone was safe and well before thinking about himself," he says. It seems that for now, at least, the gap between the positions of Hamas and the Israeli government remains too wide to reach a deal.
Mark says he had a tear in his eye when a friend, who also served with them both in Afghanistan, sent him a link to news of James's death.
"James's heart was the biggest part of his body. The suffering that people are obviously going through in Gaza would have made him want to do something immediately.
"He was a team leader, extremely professional, and extremely kind," he adds.
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