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Israeli strikes across Gaza kill multiple Palestinians and shatter ceasefire with Hamas [Update @post#234]

Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies bombardment, rescuers say

At least 69 people have been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza on Thursday, rescuers say, as Israel intensified its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

One air strike killed 15 people at a school-turned-shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency. The Israeli military said it targeted a "key" Hamas operative based there.

The Civil Defence also reported that 38 people were killed while queueing for aid, or on their way to pick it up. The military said such reports of extensive casualties were "lies".

It comes as pressure mounts on both Israel and Hamas to agree to a new ceasefire and hostage release deal being pushed by US President Donald Trump.

Trump announced on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the "necessary conditions" to finalize a 60-day ceasefire. However, there are still obstacles that could prevent a quick agreement.

Hamas has said it is studying the proposals - the details of which have still not been made public - but that it still wants an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will travel to Washington on Monday, has meanwhile insisted that the Palestinian armed group must be eliminated.

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its aircraft had struck around 150 "terror targets" across Gaza over the previous 24 hours, including fighters, tunnels and weapons.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 118 people had been killed during the same period.

Fifteen people, most of them women and children, were killed when a school housing displaced families in the al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City was struck before dawn on Thursday, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and medics said.

Witness Wafaa al-Arqan told Reuters news agency: "Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning... What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?"

The IDF said it struck a "key Hamas terrorist" who was operating in a "command-and-control centre" in Gaza City, without mentioning the school.

The IDF added that it took numerous steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians and accused Hamas of using human shields - an allegation the group has repeatedly denied.

At least another five displaced people were reportedly killed when a tent was struck overnight in the southern al-Mawasi area, where the IDF has told residents of areas affected by its evacuation orders to head for their own safety.

Ashraf Abu Shaba, who lived in a neighbouring tent, said he saw the bodies of children and women wrapped in blankets afterwards.

"The occupation [Israel] claims there are safe zones, but there are no safe zones. Every place is a target... The situation is unbearable," he added.

Later, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP news agency that another 38 people were killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid.

He said 25 were killed near the Israeli military's Netzarim corridor in central Gaza. Six died at another location nearby, while seven were killed in the southern Rafah area, he added.

Medics at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis separately told Reuters that at least 20 people were killed while making their way to an aid distribution centre.

There was no direct response to the reports from the IDF.

Last week, the IDF said it was examining reports of civilians being harmed while approaching sites in southern and central Gaza run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

On Thursday, IDF spokesman Brig-Gen Effie Defrin acknowledged at a briefing that Israeli forces were facing a "complex challenge" and drawing "lessons from every incident to prevent similar cases in the future".

But he declared: "The reports of allegations of extensive casualties in the aid distribution centres are lies."

There have been reports of deadly incidents near the distribution sites almost every day since the GHF began operating on 26 May.

According to Gaza's health ministry, at least 408 people have been killed near GHF centres over the past five weeks. Another 175 people have been killed seeking aid elsewhere, including along routes used by UN aid convoys, it says.

The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, said "distribution at all sites ran smoothly" on Thursday and that it had now handed out more than one million boxes of food.

The GHF also rejected as "categorically false" allegations from a former security contractor, who told the BBC that he witnessed colleagues opening fire on civilians waiting for aid.

The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the GHF, saying its new system contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles.

The US and Israel say the GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

BBC
 
Hamas says it is consulting other Palestinian groups on Gaza ceasefire plan

Hamas says it is consulting other Palestinian groups before giving a formal response to the latest proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal put forward by the US.

President Donald Trump said on Friday morning that expected to know within 24 hours whether Hamas has agreed to the plan.

On Tuesday, Trump said Israel had accepted the conditions necessary for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the 20-month war.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military is continuing to bomb targets across the Gaza Strip.

Local journalists reported hearing explosions and gunfire as Israeli helicopter gunships and artillery struck the southern Khan Younis area on Friday morning.

Overnight, at least 15 Palestinians were killed in strikes on two tents housing displaced people in Khan Younis, the local Nasser hospital said.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the strikes, but it did say its forces were "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities".

In a statement issued early on Friday, Hamas said it was discussing with the leaders of other Palestinian factions the ceasefire proposal that it had received from regional mediators Qatar and Egypt.

Hamas said it would deliver a "final decision" to the mediators once the consultations had ended and then announce it officially.

The proposal is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 other hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Fifty hostages are still being held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

One of Hamas's key demands is the resumption of unrestricted food and medical aid into Gaza, and the proposal reportedly says sufficient quantities would enter the territory immediately with the involvement of the United Nations and Red Cross.

It is said the plan would also include a phased Israeli military withdrawal from parts of Gaza.

Above all, Hamas wants a guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations will not resume after the end of the 60-day ceasefire.

The proposal is believed to say that negotiations on an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages would begin on day one.

Donald Trump told reporters early on Friday that he expected to know "over the next 24 hours" whether the proposals would be accepted by Hamas.

The hope then would be the resumption of formal, indirect, talks ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington next week.

"We sure hope it's a done deal, but I think it's all going to be what Hamas is willing to accept," US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israel's Channel 12 TV on Thursday.

"One thing is clear: The president wants it to be over. The prime minister wants it to be over. The American people, the Israeli people, want it to be over."

Netanyahu meanwhile promised to secure the release of all the remaining hostages during a visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Israel-Gaza border where a total of 76 residents were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war.

"I feel a deep commitment, first of all, to ensure the return of all of our hostages, all of them," he said. "We will bring them all back."

He did not, however, commit to ending the war. He has insisted that will not happen until the hostages are freed and Hamas's military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 

Israeli military kills 15 in Gaza as Trump awaits Hamas reply to truce proposal​


At least 15 Palestinians were killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to local health officials, as U.S. President Donald Trump said he expected Hamas to respond to his "final proposal" for a ceasefire in Gaza in the next 24 hours.

Health officials at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said the Israeli military had carried out an airstrike on a tent encampment west of the city around 2 a.m., killing 15 Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Later on Friday, Palestinians gathered to perform funeral prayers before burying those killed overnight.

"The ceasefire will come, and I have lost my brother? There should have been a ceasefire long ago before I lost my brother," said 13-year-old Mayar Al Farr as she wept. Her brother, Mahmoud, was among those killed.

Adlar Mouamar said her nephew, Ashraf, was also killed. "Our hearts are broken. We ask the world, we don’t want food...We want them to end the bloodshed. We want them to stop this war."

Trump earlier said it would probably be known in 24 hours whether Hamas has accepted a ceasefire between the Palestinian militant group and Israel.

On Tuesday, the president announced that Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties would work towards ending the war.

Hamas, which has previously declared it would only agree to a deal for a permanent end to the war, has said it was studying the proposal, but given no public indication whether it would accept or reject it.

'MAKE THE DEAL'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is yet to comment on Trump's ceasefire announcement. While some members of his right-wing coalition oppose a deal, others have indicated their support.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group has so far refused to discuss.

In Tel Aviv, families and friends of hostages held in Gaza were among demonstrators who gathered outside a U.S. Embassy building on U.S. Independence Day, calling on Trump to secure a deal for all of the captives.

Demonstrators set up a symbolic Shabbat dinner table, placing 50 empty chairs to represent those who are still held in Gaza. Banners hung nearby displaying a post by Trump from his Truth Social platform that read, "MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!"

"Only you can make the deal. We want one beautiful deal. One beautiful hostage deal," said Gideon Rosenberg, 48, from Tel Aviv.

Rosenberg was wearing a shirt with the image of hostage Avinatan Or, one of his employees who was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Nova musical festival on October 7, 2023. He is among the 20 hostages who are believed to be alive after more than 600 days of captivity.

Ruby Chen, 55, the father of 19-year-old American-Israeli Itay, who is believed to have been killed after being taken captive, urged Netanyahu to return from his meeting with Trump in Washington on Monday with a deal that brings back all hostages.

"Let this United States Independence Day mark the beginning of a lasting peace..., one that secures the sacred value of human life and one that bestows dignity to the deceased hostages by ensuring their return to proper burial,” he said, also appealing to Trump.

Itay Chen, also a German national, was serving as an Israeli soldier when Hamas carried out its surprise attack on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas has devastated Gaza, which the militant group has ruled for almost two decades but now only controls in parts, displacing most of the population of more than 2 million and triggering widespread hunger.

More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly two years of fighting, most of them civilians, according to local health officials.

Source: Reuters
 
Since late May, at least 613 Palestinian aid seekers have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations, as violence continues near humanitarian aid sites run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Reports also allege that U.S. contractors at these sites have used live ammunition and stun grenades. The Israeli military has carried out continued assaults across Gaza, including deadly strikes on makeshift tent camps and residential buildings, with 41 more Palestinians killed just on Friday. The violence has pushed many civilians into the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi, which has instead become a “death trap” due to repeated bombings.

Meanwhile, forced displacement in the occupied West Bank is worsening, with dozens of Palestinian Bedouin families fleeing Israeli settler violence under army protection. Israeli air and ground forces continue to target what they claim are Hamas assets, including tunnels and weapons sites in Khan Younis and Rafah. Hospitals like al-Shifa are struggling under pressure, operating at half capacity. The EU condemned the violence around food centers as "untenable," emphasizing that aid must not be politicized. Amid all this, personal tragedies mount, including the shooting of a 12-year-old in East Jerusalem while eating pizza, symbolizing the broader civilian toll of this prolonged and intensifying conflict.
 
Hamas says it delivered 'positive response' on US Gaza ceasefire plan

Hamas says it has delivered a "positive response" to mediators on the latest proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal put forward by the US.

The Palestinian armed group said in a statement that it was "seriously ready to enter immediately into a round of negotiations", but has not confirmed whether it will accept the terms of the proposal.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that Hamas accepted the general framework but had requested several amendments, including a US guarantee that hostilities will not resume if talks on ending the 20-month war fail.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday there could be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire by next week.

It was good that Hamas said it had responded in "a positive spirit" to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal, Trump added.

On Tuesday, Trump said that Israel had accepted the "necessary conditions" for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the war.

He also urged Hamas to accept what he described as "the final proposal", warning the group that "it will not get better - it will only get worse".

The plan is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages by Hamas and the bodies of 18 other hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Fifty hostages are still being held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

The proposal also reportedly says that sufficient quantities of humanitarian aid would enter Gaza immediately with the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The senior Palestinian official said Hamas was demanding that the aid be distributed exclusively by the UN and its partners, and that the controversial distribution system run by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) end immediately.

Another key amendment demanded by Hamas was about Israeli troop withdrawals, according to the Palestinian official.

The US proposal is believed to include phased pull-outs from parts of northern and southern Gaza. But the official said Hamas was insisting that troops returned to the positions they held before the last ceasefire collapsed in March, when Israel resumed its offensive against the group.

The Palestinian official said Hamas also wanted a US guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations would not resume if negotiations on a permanent ceasefire failed.

The proposal is believed to say that negotiations on ending the war would begin on day one.

However, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out ending the war until all of the hostages are released and Hamas's military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

The Israeli military continued to bomb targets across the Gaza Strip as the US and Israel awaited Hamas's response to the ceasefire proposal on Friday.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said in the afternoon that Israeli attacks had killed at least 138 Palestinians over the previous 24 hours.

Overnight, at least 15 Palestinians were killed in strikes on two tents housing displaced people in the southern Khan Younis area, the local Nasser hospital said.

Thirteen-year-old Mayar al-Farr's brother, Mahmoud, was among those killed.

"The ceasefire will come, and I have lost my brother? There should have been a ceasefire long ago before I lost my brother," she told Reuters news agency at his funeral.

Adlar Mouamar, whose nephew Ashraf was also killed, said: "Our hearts are broken... We want them to end the bloodshed. We want them to stop this war."

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the strikes, but did say its forces were "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities".

Later on Friday, the ICRC said a staff member at the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, had been hit by a stray bullet. His condition was stable after the "unacceptable" incident, the ICRC said.

Meanwhile, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said a former colleague had been killed the previous day when, it said, Israeli forces fired on people waiting for aid lorries in Khan Younis. At least 16 people were killed in the incident, MSF quoted teams at Nasser hospital as saying. The Israeli military has not yet commented.

"The systemic and deliberate starvation of Palestinians for over 100 days is pushing people in Gaza to breaking point," said Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF's emergency co-ordinator in Gaza. "This carnage must stop now."

The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded the killing of at least 509 people near the GHF's aid distribution centres and 104 other people near aid convoys.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the office was working to verify the figures and ascertain who was responsible, but added that it was "clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points".

The GHF said the UN figures were coming "directly" from the Gaza health ministry, which it says is not credible, and that they were being used to "falsely smear" its effort. Its chairman insisted this week there had not been any violent incidents at or in close proximity to its sites.

The Israeli military has said it is examining reports of civilians being harmed while approaching the GHF's sites, but insisted that reports of "extensive casualties" at them are "lies".

In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, only 60km (40 miles) from Gaza, the families of the remaining hostages and their supporters held a rally outside the US embassy branch office, urging Trump to "make the deal" that would see them all released.

On the nearby beachfront, they laid out a giant banner featuring the US flag and the words "liberty for all".

Among those who addressed the event was Ruby Chen, the father of Israeli-American Itay Chen. The 19-year-old soldier was killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 which triggered the war, and his body was taken back to Gaza as a hostage, according to the Israeli military.

"I urge you Prime Minister Netanyahu to go to the US next week and bring back a deal that brings all the hostages home," Mr Chen said. "There has to be a final, detailed agreement between Israel and Hamas."

Keith Siegel, an Israeli American who was released in February during the last ceasefire after 484 days in captivity, also spoke.

"Many of my friends from Kibbutz Kfar Aza remain in captivity," he said. "Only a comprehensive deal can bring them all home and create a better future for the Middle East."

The primary concern for most Israelis is the fate of the remaining hostages and what might happen to them if the ceasefire does not happen and Netanyahu orders the Israeli military to step up its air strikes on Gaza.

On Thursday, the prime minister promised to secure the release of all the remaining hostages during a visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Israel-Gaza border where a total of 76 residents were abducted on 7 October 2023.

"I feel a deep commitment, first of all, to ensure the return of all of our hostages, all of them," he said. "We will bring them all back."

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,268 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

BBC
 
Israeli Strikes Kill Dozens as Hospitals Collapse Under Pressure in Gaza

At least 42 Palestinians were killed in a fresh wave of Israeli attacks across Gaza, targeting civilians in areas previously marked as humanitarian zones, including the al-Mawasi region and crowded aid centres near Rafah and Gaza City. Among the dead were doctors, children, and displaced families. The attacks also hit a school sheltering displaced people, while health workers reported catastrophic conditions in hospitals, citing fuel shortages, limited supplies, and the continued blockade of baby milk. Over 1,580 health workers have been killed since October 2023, with Gaza's medical infrastructure on the verge of collapse.

Amid the rising toll, Hamas expressed willingness to enter immediate ceasefire talks based on a 60-day proposal, which includes a pause in Israeli offensives, release of hostages, and a surge in humanitarian aid. International leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim, have urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid into Gaza and called for a two-state solution. Meanwhile, domestic and diaspora criticism continues to grow over Israel's refusal to grant access to essential supplies, as the besieged enclave faces one of its deadliest phases in months.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...ady-to-start-gaza-ceasefire-talks-with-israel
 

Coward forces continues strike over Gaza​

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Israel continues airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas says it is ready for ceasefire talks​


Israel has continued to launch waves of airstrikes in Gaza, hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.

The announcement by the militant Islamist organisation increased hopes that a deal may be done within days to pause the killing in Gaza and possibly end the near 21-month conflict.

Saturday was relatively “calmer” after days of intense bombardment, aid officials and residents in Gaza said, although 24 Palestinians were killed, including 10 people seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospital officials.

Airstrikes struck tents in the Mawasi coastal area in southern Gaza, killing seven, including a Palestinian doctor and his three children, according to medics at a nearby hospital. Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila, and three people were killed in three different strikes in the town of Khan Younis.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made no immediate comment on the attacks.

Israel’s security cabinet was due to meet after sundown on Saturday but officials in Jerusalem said there was “no guarantee” that ministers would make a decision on the Hamas response to the ceasefire deal.

Separately, two US contractors with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) were injured in the south of the territory after unknown assailants threw grenades at them at a food distribution site, the organisation said.

The GHF, a US-supported private organisation that began handing out food parcels in Gaza last month, has been mired in controversy, with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, saying it was “inherently unsafe” and that it was “killing people”. The GHF denies this, saying it has delivered tens of millions of meals in “safety and security”.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks in shooting or shelling by the IDF while travelling to GHF sites or gathering in large crowds to get aid from convoys brought into Gaza by the UN that are often stopped and looted.

Aid workers in Gaza have called again for an immediate cessation of hostilities, saying that fuel stocks for NGOs are close to running out, which would lead to the “complete collapse” of humanitarian operations, much of the health system and communications across the territory. Power supplies in Gaza rely primarily on large quantities of diesel for generators.

“We are pretty much down to about half a day’s worth. When that is gone, everything has to shut down,” said one humanitarian worker in Deir al-Balah.

Israel imposed a tight 11-week blockade on Gaza after the most recent ceasefire collapsed in March, which has only been partly lifted to allow a small amount of food aid and medical supplies into the territory. No fuel has been permitted to enter, and supplies that still exist in Gaza are often in Israeli-controlled areas or combat zones and so inaccessible.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is to fly to Washington on Sunday for talks with the US president, Donald Trump, who has said in a series of social media posts that he wants the Gaza war to stop.

Drafts of the proposed deal seen by the Guardian include a provision specifying that Trump would personally announce any ceasefire – possibly in the coming days during Netanyahu’s visit.

However, sources close to Hamas said the organisation wants greater clarity over guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a permanent end to the war and the eventual withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

There is also disagreement over who would be allowed to deliver the “sufficient aid” described in the draft. Hamas want the GHF to be closed down. Israel wants to maintain a system of distribution independent from the UN or other countries.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One late on Friday, Trump said he was optimistic and suggested there “could be a Gaza deal” next week. But Israeli media have described a series of steps involving separate Israeli delegations flying to Qatar and Egypt to complete negotiations, and the current draft specifies that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s personal envoy, will travel to the Middle East to finalise the deal.

Analysts said this could mean lengthy delays before an agreement is reached.

The war in Gaza was triggered by a surprise Hamas-led attack into Israel in October 2023, during which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Fifty remain in Gaza, less than half still alive.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to a count by the territory’s ministry of health that is considered reliable by the UN and many western governments.

Source: The Guardian
 
Israel to send negotiators to Gaza talks despite 'unacceptable' Hamas demands, PM says

Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar on Sunday for proximity talks with Hamas on the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had accepted the invitation despite what he described as the "unacceptable" changes that Hamas wanted to make to a plan presented by mediators from Qatar, the US and Egypt.

On Friday night, Hamas said it had delivered a "positive response" to the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire and that it was ready for negotiations.

However, a Palestinian official said the group had sought amendments including a guarantee that hostilities would not resume if talks on a permanent truce failed.

In Gaza itself, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 35 Palestinians on Saturday.

Seven people were killed, including a doctor and his three children, when tents in the al-Mawasi area were bombed, according to a hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, two American employees of the controversial aid distribution organisation backed by Israel and the US - the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - were wounded in what it said was a grenade attack at its site in the Khan Younis area.

The Israeli and US governments both blamed Hamas, which has not commented.

Late on Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that "the changes that Hamas is seeking to make" to the ceasefire proposal were "unacceptable to Israel".

But it added: "In light of an assessment of the situation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed that the invitation to proximity talks be accepted and that the contacts for the return of our hostages - on the basis of the Qatari proposal that Israel has agreed to - be continued. The negotiating team will leave tomorrow."

Earlier, an Israeli official had briefed local media that there was "something to work with" in the way that Hamas had responded.

Mediators are likely to have their work cut out to bridge the remaining gaps at the indirect talks in Doha.

Watching them closely will be US President Donald Trump, who has been talking up the chances of an agreement in recent days.

On Friday, before he was briefed on Hamas's response, he said it was "good" that the group was positive and that "there could be a Gaza deal next week".

Trump is due to meet Netanyahu on Monday, and it is clear that he would very much like to be able to announce a significant breakthrough then.

The families of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza will also once again be holding their breath.

Hostages' relatives and thousands of their supporters attended a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call for a comprehensive deal that would bring home all of the hostages.

Among those who spoke was Yechiel Yehoud. His daughter Arbel Yehoud was released from captivity during the last ceasefire, which Trump helped to broker before he took office and which collapsed when Israel resumed its offensive in March.

"President Trump, thank you for bringing our Arbel back to us. We will be indebted to you for the rest of our lives. Please don't stop, please make a 'big beautiful hostages deal'," he said.

On Tuesday, the US president said that Israel had accepted the "necessary conditions" for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the war.

The plan is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages by Hamas and the bodies of 18 other hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Fifty hostages are still being held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

The proposal also reportedly says sufficient quantities of aid would enter Gaza immediately with the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC on Friday that Hamas was demanding aid be distributed exclusively by the UN and its partners, and that the GHF's operations end immediately.

Another amendment demanded by Hamas was about Israeli troop withdrawals, according to the official.

The US proposal is believed to include phased Israeli pull-outs from parts of Gaza. But the official said Hamas wanted troops to return to the positions they held before the last ceasefire collapsed in March, when Israel resumed its offensive.

The official said Hamas also wanted a US guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations would not resume even if the ceasefire ended without a permanent truce.

The proposal is believed to say mediators will guarantee that serious negotiations will take place from day one, and that they can extend the ceasefire if necessary.

The Israeli prime minister has ruled out ending the war until all of the hostages are released and Hamas's military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

Far-right members of his cabinet have also expressed their opposition to the proposed deal.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Saturday that the only way to secure the return of the hostages was the "full conquest of the Gaza Strip, a complete halt to so-called 'humanitarian' aid, and the encouragement of emigration" of the Palestinian population.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,338 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 
US Consulting Group Slammed Over Alleged Displacement Plans in Gaza

Gaza’s Government Media Office has fiercely condemned the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for its involvement in developing the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), accusing it of enabling a US-Israeli plan to forcibly displace Palestinians under the guise of aid. A Financial Times report revealed that BCG helped model the costs of relocating Palestinians and was involved in a multimillion-dollar contract to launch the GHF—although BCG has since distanced itself from the project. Gaza officials warned that these so-called humanitarian initiatives are in fact “criminal projects” aimed at ethnic cleansing, citing over 700 Palestinians killed near GHF-run aid sites, many while trying to collect food.

Israeli Attacks Intensify, West Bank Land Grabs Surge Amid Ceasefire Talks

As Israeli negotiators head to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas over a 60-day ceasefire, Israel continues its deadly assaults across Gaza. At least 48 Palestinians, including children, were killed today, with strikes hitting schools and aid centers. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settler violence and land seizures are reportedly escalating unchecked. Over 70,000 Palestinians have been displaced since January due to demolitions and settler attacks, as Israel accelerates its annexation plans. Despite global focus on Gaza, the right-wing Israeli government appears to be pushing a dual-front strategy—talking peace in Gaza while tightening control over the West Bank.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...gaza-city-home-killing-12-amid-push-for-truce
 

Hamas security officer says group has lost control over most of Gaza​


A senior officer in Hamas's security forces has told the BBC the Palestinian armed group has lost about 80% of its control over the Gaza Strip and that armed clans are filling the void.

The lieutenant colonel said Hamas's command and control system had collapsed due to months of Israeli strikes that have devastated the group's political, military and security leadership.

The officer was wounded in the first week of the war, which began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, and has since stepped away from his duties for health reasons.

He shared several voice messages with the BBC on condition of anonymity.

In the messages, the officer painted a picture of Hamas's internal disintegration and the near-total collapse of security across Gaza, which the group governed before the conflict.

"Let's be realistic here - there's barely anything left of the security structure. Most of the leadership, about 95%, are now dead... The active figures have all been killed," he said. "So really, what's stopping Israel from continuing this war?"

"Logically, it has to continue until the end. All the conditions are aligned: Israel has the upper hand, the world is silent, the Arab regimes are silent, criminal gangs are everywhere, society is collapsing."

Last September, Israel's then-defence minister declared that "Hamas as a military formation no longer exists" and that it was engaged in guerrilla warfare.

According to the officer, Hamas attempted to regroup during the 57-day ceasefire with Israel earlier this year, reorganizing its political, military, and security councils.

But since Israel ended the truce in March, it has targeted Hamas's remaining command structures, leaving the group in disarray.

"About the security situation, let me be clear: it has completely collapsed. Totally gone. There's no control anywhere," he said.

"People looted the most powerful Hamas security apparatus (Ansar), the complex which Hamas used to rule Gaza.

"They looted everything, the offices - mattresses, even zinc panels - and no-one intervened. No police, no security."

The officer said a consequence of the security vacuum was gangs or armed clans were "everywhere".

"They could stop you, kill you. No one would intervene. Anyone who tried to act on their own, like organising resistance against thieves, was bombed by Israel within half an hour.

"So, the security situation is zero. Hamas's control is zero. There's no leadership, no command, no communication. Salaries are delayed, and when they do arrive, they're barely usable. Some die just trying to collect them. It's total collapse."

On 26 June, at least 18 people were killed when an Israeli drone strike targeted a plainclothes Hamas police unit attempting to assert control over a market in Deir al-Balah, accusing vendors of price gouging and selling looted aid, witnesses and medics said.

The Israeli military said it struck "several armed terrorists" belonging to Hamas's Internal Security Forces.

In this vacuum, six armed groups affiliated with powerful local clans have emerged as serious contenders to fill the void, according to the officer.

These groups have access to money, weapons and men, and are active across all of Gaza, but mostly in the south.

One of them is led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a figure who has attracted attention from the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the occupied West Bank and is a rival to Hamas, as well as regional players - particularly after Israel confirmed last month that it was supplying him with weapons.

The officer confirmed that Hamas had placed a large bounty on Abu Shabab's head, fearing he could become a unifying figure for its many enemies.

"Hamas would ignore ordinary thieves. People are hungry and [the fighters] don't want to provoke more chaos. But this guy? If the Hamas fighters find him, they might go after him instead of Israeli tanks."

Sources in Gaza told the BBC that Abu Shabab was working to co-ordinate with other armed groups to form a joint council aimed at toppling Hamas.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gk79xlzwjo
 
More than 80 Palestinians killed across Gaza as truce talks begin

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 82 people as negotiations between Israel and Hamas towards a ceasefire deal begin in Qatar.

On Sunday, at least 39 people were killed in Gaza City alone. A midnight attack on the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the region also trapped victims under debris.

Witnesses have described apocalyptic scenes as neighbours retrieve body parts, including those of children.

Mahmoud al-Sheikh Salama, a survivor of one strike, said it took place at 2am (23:00 GMT on Saturday) while he was sleeping.

“We heard a loud explosion and shortly after, another one. We rushed over… and people were trapped under the rubble – four families, a large number of residents,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We tried to search for survivors and managed to pull out two people alive from under the debris after about three hours of struggle and breaking through. We got two out alive – the rest were martyred and are still trapped.”

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said Israel’s current military escalation in Gaza is “a chilling and brutal reminder” of the opening weeks of the war because of the intensity and scale of each attack.

“In the span of two hours, we have counted at least seven air strikes across the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“A local community kitchen in the northern part of Deir el-Balah was also struck and three people were killed, including the main operator behind it.”


www.aljazeera.com

More than 80 Palestinians killed across Gaza as truce talks begin

US President Donald Trump says a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel could occur this week as truce talks resume in Qatar.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 

Netanyahu visits US as Trump puts pressure to agree Gaza ceasefire deal​


Amid renewed ceasefire talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met US President Donald Trump in Washington, raising hopes of a 60-day truce in Gaza. Trump has described the US-backed proposal as the “final” deal, claiming Israel has accepted the necessary conditions, while Hamas has responded “positively” but raised objections over humanitarian aid control and troop withdrawal timelines. The deal would see phased hostage releases and Israeli military pullouts, with humanitarian aid scaled up significantly. However, deep mistrust remains between the parties, and key differences persist, particularly over Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s insistence on disarmament.

In both Israel and Gaza, reactions to the proposed agreement are mixed. Many displaced Palestinians, exhausted from war and worsening humanitarian conditions, say they want an end to the conflict, not just a temporary pause. In Israel, public pressure is mounting, with hostage families and a majority of the population supporting a ceasefire deal. Analysts suggest Netanyahu’s recent boost in popularity after the Iran strikes may give him the leverage to pursue peace, while Hamas appears weakened but still reluctant to meet Israel’s core demands. With talks underway in Qatar and growing urgency on all sides, the next few days may prove decisive.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4ypze027ro
 
Trump upbeat on Gaza ceasefire talks as he hosts Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump has said he thinks talks to end the war in Gaza have been "going along very well", as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC.

Trump also expressed confidence that Hamas was willing to end the 21-month conflict. "They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire," he said in unexpected remarks to reporters at the White House.

The meeting came after the latest rounds of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar ended without a breakthrough, though negotiations were expected to continue this week.

In Monday's remarks, Trump was asked by a journalist what was preventing a peace deal in Gaza, and he said: "I don't think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well."

Both leaders were asked about potential plans to relocate Palestinians, with Trump saying he has co-operation from countries neighbouring Israel.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, said he was working with the US on finding countries that will "give Palestinians a better future".

"If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," Netanyahu said.

The Palestinian presidency has previously rejected plans to relocate Palestinians, which it pointed out would violate international law.

Netanyahu also appeared to play down prospects of full Palestinian statehood, saying that Israel will "always" keep security control over the Gaza Strip.

"Now, people will say it's not a complete state, it's not a state. We don't care," Netanyahu said.

At the meeting, the Israeli PM also said he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, reportedly a long-held goal of the US president.

"He's forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other," Netanyahu said as he presented Trump with a letter he sent to the prize committee.

The White House initially said it would not make the meeting between the two leaders open to media, with officials describing it as a private dinner during which Trump would prioritise the push for an end to the war and the return of all hostages.

Keeping the meeting closed to journalists would have been unusual for a president who likes to platform his positions with foreign leaders in front of the world's press.

The US-backed ceasefire proposal would reportedly see Hamas release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in five stages during a 60-day truce.

Israel would be required to release an unknown number of Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from parts of Gaza, where it now controls about two-thirds of the territory.

Obstacles to a deal remain significant.

The main outstanding issue relates to aid, as Hamas insists on ending the work of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while the Israeli delegation refuses to discuss the issue, saying they are not authorised to discuss it.

During his visit, Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

As Netanyahu's armoured limousine travelled to the White House, dozens of protesters gathered at security gates, waving Palestinian flags and shouting calls for the Israeli's PM's arrest.

Netanyahu, along with his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, were made subjects of an arrest warrant in November from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Netanyahu has rejected the allegations, calling the warrants antisemitic, while the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on four ICC judges for what it called "baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel".

The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives seated in different rooms in the same building.

A second session was held on Monday and ended without a breakthrough, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP.

Witkoff was due to join the talks in Doha later this week in an effort to get a ceasefire over the line as the Gaza conflict nears its 22nd month.

Speaking to the BBC, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee declined to say whether Trump would give a written guarantee that a proposed 60-day ceasefire would be extended, so long as negotiations continue.

"I simply don't know," Huckabee said.

This is one of Hamas's key demands and a stumbling block in the current negotiations.

When asked whether he believes Trump can achieve a breakthrough with the Israeli leader, Huckabee said: "I'm not a prophet. I cannot predict the future, so I won't try to tell you what will happen."

Netanyahu is visiting the White House for the third time since Trump returned to power nearly six months ago.

But the leaders are meeting for the first time since the US joined Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and then brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

There is a strong sense that the recent 12-day war has created more favorable circumstances to end the Gaza war.

Witkoff said at Monday's dinner that a US meeting with Iran would take place in the next week or so. Trump also said he would like to lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic at some point.

The US president has expressed increasing concern over the conflict in Gaza in recent weeks and believes there is a "good chance" of reaching a ceasefire.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said it was Trump's "utmost priority" to end the war in Gaza and that he wanted Hamas to agree to the 60-day deal "right now".

BBC
 
Key Updates on Israel-Palestine Conflict

Palestinian Prisoner Count Hits New High as Gaza Casualties Mount Amid Israeli Attacks

The number of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons has soared to approximately 10,800, the highest since 2000, according to a joint statement by Palestinian prisoner institutions via the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS). Among those detained are over 450 children and at least 50 women. Disturbingly, this figure excludes Palestinians held in undisclosed Israeli military camps. Legal monitors warn that 3,629 of the detainees are being held under administrative detention — a controversial practice allowing indefinite imprisonment without trial or formal charges. Human rights advocates argue that detainees under this system are denied basic legal protections, often held for months or years with no clear legal process.

Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise in Gaza as Israeli forces carry out repeated assaults across the strip. At least 30 Palestinians were killed in a series of attacks on July 8, including five people struck in a tent sheltering displaced civilians in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood. Six more, including three children, were killed near an aid distribution centre in Rafah. The attacks coincide with revelations that Israel is implementing a plan aligned with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for Palestinian “voluntary emigration,” including efforts to confine hundreds of thousands in tent cities on the ruins of Rafah. Critics say the plan is tantamount to forced displacement and amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Source: http://aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/...-gaza-trump-netanyahu-hold-talks-on-ceasefire









Ask ChatGPT
 

Trump upbeat on Gaza ceasefire talks despite lack of breakthrough​


US President Donald Trump has said the Gaza ceasefire talks are "going along very well", despite no breakthrough in the latest round of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Qatar.

Discussions are set to resume on Tuesday, though a Palestinian source familiar with the talks told the BBC they have not made any headway.

Trump spoke to reporters as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC on Monday evening. Afterwards, a senior Israeli political official said the talks in Doha were still some way off from what Israel wanted to achieve.

Trump has recently stepped up pressure on Israel and Hamas to agree a deal, saying he believed it would be done this week.

As they met for dinner, Trump and Netanyahu were asked about Israeli and US proposals suggested earlier this year to permanently relocate Palestinians from Gaza.

Trump said he had co-operation for this from countries neighbouring Israel, while Netanyahu said he was working with the US on finding countries that will "give Palestinians a better future".

"If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," Netanyahu said.

The proposals to force Palestinians out of Gaza has been met by condemnation from the UN, Arab leaders, human rights organisations, and Western governments.

Arab countries, led by Egypt, have suggested an alternative plan involving massive reconstruction in Gaza while Palestinians stay there in temporary housing units.

The UN has warned that the deportation or forcible transfer of an occupied territory's civilian population is strictly prohibited under international law and "tantamount to ethnic cleansing".

Netanyahu also appeared to again rule out any potential Palestinian statehood, saying that Israel will "always" keep security control over the Gaza Strip.

"Now, people will say: 'It's not a complete state, it's not a state.' We don't care," he said.

The concept of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel is supported by the vast majority of the international community, and about three quarters of UN member states officially recognise the State of Palestine.

Meanwhile, Israel's defence minister told Israeli media that he had instructed the military to prepare a plan to move all 2 million Palestinians in Gaza into a camp in the south after screening them to ensure they were not Hamas operatives.

The plan has been described by one Israeli human rights lawyer as an "operational plan for a crime against humanity".

Trump has previously said he would be "very firm" with Netanyahu about ending the war.

But a Palestinian official familiar with the ceasefire talks told the BBC on Tuesday that the three rounds of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel since Sunday have yielded no progress.

"The negotiations haven't made any headway, not even an inch," the official said.

"The Israeli delegation simply came to listen and has no real mandate to negotiate."

The official expressed astonishment at recent media reports claiming significant progress, calling them "delusional" and "misleading".

Another Palestinian official told the BBC: "Hamas is beginning to question Israel's true intentions, accusing it of fostering a false sense of optimism in Doha without any real progress in the discussions."

Trump said Hamas "want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire".

According to Israeli Army Radio, the senior Israeli political official told reporters in Washington following the Netanyahu-Trump meeting: "I don't know if a deal will be signed in the coming week - it requires pressure and patience."

"We're about 80-90% of the way toward what we wanted in the previous negotiations."

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said five of its soldiers had been killed in the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli media said it was caused by a roadside bomb in the area of Beit Hanoun.

A Hamas spokesman said its fighters had delivered a "blow" to the Israeli military in an operation in the area.

The Hamas-run ministry of health said on Tuesday afternoon that at least 52 Palestinians had been killed by Israel in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

The US-backed ceasefire proposal currently under discussion would reportedly see Hamas release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in five stages during a 60-day truce.

Israel would be required to release an unknown number of Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from parts of Gaza, where it now controls about two-thirds of the territory.

Netanyahu also told reporters he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, reportedly a long-held goal of the US president.

"He's forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other," Netanyahu said as he presented Trump with a letter he sent to the prize committee.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2k14n9d8y9o
 
Trump and Netanyahu hold second meeting for Gaza ceasefire talks

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday evening for the second time in as many days to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza.

The meeting came after Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff suggested Israel and Hamas had one remaining issue to agree on for a 60-day ceasefire deal.

Netanyahu arrived at the White House shortly after 17:00 EST (21:00 GMT) on Tuesday for the meeting, which was not open to members of the press.

Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu met with vice-president JD Vance. He also met with Trump for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday.

It marks Netanyahu's third state visit to the US since Trump's second term.

The meeting of the two leaders lasted around two hours.

Netanyahu also met with the Republican House of Representative Speaker Mike Johnson.

After that meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister said he did not believe Israel's military campaign in Gaza was done, but that negotiators are "certainly working" on a ceasefire.

"We still have to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas' military and government capabilities," Netanyahu said.

Witkoff later said that Israel and Hamas were closing the gap on issues that previously prevented them from reaching a deal, and that he hoped a temporary, 60-day ceasefire will be agreed on this week.

"We had four issues and now we're down to one", Witkoff said of the sticking points in negotiations.

He added that the draft deal would also include the release of 10 hostages who are alive, and the bodies of nine who are deceased.

Before the Israeli Prime Minister's meeting with Trump on Monday, a Qatari delegation arrived at the White House and spoke with officials for several hours, Axios reported, citing a source with knowledge of the talks.

Trump told reporters on Monday evening that ceasefire talks are "going very well". But Qatar, which has played a mediator role in negotiations, said on Tuesday morning that more time was needed for negotiations.

"I don't think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said.

Before discussions resumed on Tuesday, a Palestinian source familiar with the talks told the BBC they have not made any headway.

The latest round of negotiations between Hamas and Israel began on Sunday.

The ongoing Gaza war began on 7 October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 57,500 in Gaza according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza worsened as six Palestinians were killed near GHF aid centres while attempting to receive food in Khan Younis. The killings occurred amid chaotic conditions, with GHF reportedly failing to disclose distribution schedules or locations, prompting desperate civilians to gather early in unsafe zones.

The organisation has now suspended its only central Gaza aid hub for at least a week, forcing hundreds of thousands to attempt perilous journeys south to the remaining centres in Rafah. This centralisation of aid aligns with Israel’s proposed “humanitarian city” plan — widely rejected by Palestinians as a veiled attempt at forced displacement.

Meanwhile, hospitals edge closer to total shutdowns due to fuel shortages, and UN officials warn of looming mass deaths if immediate supplies are not allowed in. As Israeli attacks continue, with dozens killed since dawn, Gaza’s already-devastated infrastructure is buckling under siege, displacement, and mounting civilian casualties.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...gee-camp-trump-netanyahu-meet-for-second-time
 
Netanyahu and Trump prioritize hostages as Gaza military campaign grinds on

WASHINGTON/GAZA, July 9 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump focused on freeing hostages held in Gaza, as Israel continued to pound the Palestinian territory amid efforts to reach a ceasefire.

Netanyahu said on X that the leaders also discussed the consequences and possibilities of "the great victory we achieved over Iran," following an aerial war last month in which the United States joined Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites.

Netanyahu is making his third U.S. visit since Trump took office on January 20 and had earlier told reporters that while he did not think Israel's campaign in the Palestinian enclave was done, negotiators are "certainly working" on a ceasefire.

Trump met Netanyahu on Tuesday for the second time in two days to discuss the situation in Gaza, with the president's Middle East envoy indicating that Israel and Hamas were nearing an agreement on a ceasefire deal after 21 months of war.

A delegation from Qatar, the host of indirect talks between Israeli negotiators and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, met senior White House officials before Netanyahu's arrival on Tuesday, Axios said, citing a source familiar with the details.
The White House had no immediate comment on the report.

Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, said the number of issues preventing Israel and Hamas from reaching an agreement had decreased from four to one, expressing optimism for a temporary ceasefire deal by the end of the week.

Witkoff told reporters at a Cabinet meeting that the anticipated agreement would involve a 60-day ceasefire, with the release of 10 living and nine deceased hostages.

Netanyahu met with Vice President JD Vance before visiting the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, and was due back in Congress on Wednesday to meet U.S. Senate leaders.

"We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas' military and government capabilities," Netanyahu told reporters on Tuesday.

AIRSTRIKES

In recent weeks Israel's military has continued to hammer Gaza, where a teddy bear lay in the rubble on Wednesday at the site of one overnight airstrike in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.

Umm Mohammed Shaaban, a Palestinian grandmother mourning the deaths of three of her grandchildren in the attack, questioned the timing of a proposed ceasefire.

"After they finished us, they say they'll make a truce?" she said.

In Gaza City, people removed debris after another overnight airstrike, searching through a three-story house for survivors to no avail.

One resident, Ahmed al-Nahhal, said there was no fuel for trucks to help in rescue efforts. "From midnight till now, we have been looking for the children," he said.

Nearby men carried bodies in shrouds while women wept. Some kissed bodies placed in the back of a vehicle.

The Gaza conflict began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 hostages taken, according to Israeli figures. Around 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.

Israel's retaliatory war has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry says, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.
Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free the remaining hostages. Israel has insisted it would not agree to stop fighting until all hostages are released and Hamas dismantled.

The United Nations estimates that most of Gaza's population of more than 2 million has been displaced, with experts saying in May that nearly half a million people faced the risk of starvation.

Netanyahu has meanwhile expressed hope that Israel could expand the Abraham Accords, normalisation deals reached between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020 under U.S. mediation.
"We are working on this with full vigour," Netanyahu said on X

Source: Reuters
 
Quite disappointed that Iran didn't finish the job. Should have wiped out these genocidal Nazis.

Terrorist Israelis are h*llbent on expelling Palestinians from Gaza so they will continue the ethnic cleansing and genocide, and eventually in a few years time they will do the same thing in West Bank. They have actually already started there with aggressive illegal settlement expansions and kidnapping, torturing and killing of Palestinians in West Bank.

Sooner or later I am hopeful either they ll be deservely destroyed or get ruined by a natural disaster. The bombings of thousands of innocent children and horrific pain&suffering they have caused to millions will eventually be answered by the Almighty
 
Desperate Gaza doctors cram several babies into one incubator as fuel crisis reaches critical point

Doctors in Gaza say they were forced to cram multiple babies into one incubator as hospitals warned that fuel shortages are forcing them to shut off vital services, putting patients’ lives at risk.

The UN has warned that the fuel crisis is at a critical point, with the little supplies that are available running short and “virtually no additional accessible stocks left.”

Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink. And the deaths this is likely causing could soon rise sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel in – urgently, regularly and in sufficient quantities,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

An 11-week Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid earlier in the year pushed the enclave’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians towards famine and into a deepening humanitarian crisis. Limited aid deliveries resumed into the besieged enclave in May but aid groups have said it is not nearly enough to meet the scale of the needs.

CNN has approached COGAT, the Israeli agency in charge of coordinating aid deliveries into Gaza, for comment about the fuel shortages.

The director of the Al-Ahli Hospital, south of Gaza City posted a photo on social media Wednesday of multiple newborn babies sharing a single incubator which was taken at another facility, Al-Helou.

“This tragic overcrowding is not just a matter of missing equipment — it’s a direct consequence of the relentless war on Gaza and the suffocating blockade that has crippled the entire healthcare system,” Dr. Fadel Naim wrote in a post on X.

The siege has turned routine care for premature babies into a life-or-death struggle. No child should be born into a world where bombs and blockades decide whether they live or die.”

The director of Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza said the shortages were forcing them to close kidney dialysis sections so they could focus on intensive care and operating theatres.

“If the fuel is not made available in the next few hours to Al-Shifa hospital, the hospital will become out of service in the next three hours and this will lead to high number of deaths,” Dr. Mohammad Abu Silmiya told CNN, saying hundreds of patients were at risk, including 22 babies in incubators.

Footage from inside the hospital showed doctors using flashlights as they treated patients.

Another facility, the Nasser Medical Complex, said it had 24 hours of fuel left and was concentrating on vital departments such as maternity and intensive care.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/middleeast/gaza-fuel-babies-incubator-intl
 
Kriketer said:
Quite disappointed that Iran didn't finish the job. Should have wiped out these genocidal Nazis.

Terrorist Israelis are h*llbent on expelling Palestinians from Gaza so they will continue the ethnic cleansing and genocide, and eventually in a few years time they will do the same thing in West Bank. They have actually already started there with aggressive illegal settlement expansions and kidnapping, torturing and killing of Palestinians in West Bank.

Sooner or later I am hopeful either they ll be deservely destroyed or get ruined by a natural disaster. The bombings of thousands of innocent children and horrific pain&suffering they have caused to millions will eventually be answered by the Almighty
Click to expand...

After Gaza, they may grab more lands from Syria, Jordan etc.

They want a Greater Israel I guess.

Good news is evil never lasts for long and they will suffer defeat one day in sha Allah.
 
Nobody daring to halt the apartheid idiot army
===
'Greenlight to Israel’s genocide’: Amnesty urges suspension of EU-Israel agreement

We have a new statement from Amnesty before a key European Union foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on July 15, in which the future of the EU-Israel Association Agreement will be decided.

“When foreign ministers meet next week, there can only be one outcome: suspend the agreement,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office.

“Anything less is a greenlight for Israel to continue its genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, its unlawful occupation of the whole occupied Palestinian territory, and its system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.”

Her comments follow the European Commission’s long-awaited review of the agreement that was presented on June 23. While the review confirmed that Israel is breaching its human rights obligations, it failed to recommend concrete action, according to Amnesty.

“Every day the EU fails to act, the risk of complicity in Israel’s actions grows,” Geddie said.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Children queuing for supplements killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, hospital says

At least 15 Palestinians, including eight children and two women, have been killed in an Israeli strike near a medical point in central Gaza, a hospital there says.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the strike hit people queueing for nutritional supplements in the town of Deir al-Balah. Graphic video from the hospital showed the bodies of several children and others being treated for their wounds.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

Another 26 people were reportedly killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as Israeli and Hamas delegations continued negotiations for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal at indirect talks in Doha.

Despite optimism expressed by the US, which is acting as a mediator along with Qatar and Egypt, they do not so far seem to have come close to a breakthrough.

On Wednesday night, a senior Israeli official told journalists in Washington that it could take one or two weeks to reach an agreement.

The official, who was speaking during a visit to the US by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also said that if an agreement was reached on a 60-day ceasefire, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent end to the war that would require Hamas to disarm. If Hamas refused to disarm, Israel would "proceed" with military operations, they added.

Earlier, Hamas issued a statement saying that the talks had been difficult, blaming Israeli "intransigence".

The group said it had shown flexibility in agreeing to release 10 hostages, but it reiterated that it was seeking a "comprehensive" agreement that would end the Israeli offensive.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,680 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times. More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

BBC
 
Hamas slams Netanyahu as having ‘malicious intentions’

The Palestinian group has condemned the Israeli prime minister, who told the families of Israeli captives that a deal that would secure the release of all those still held in Gaza at once would be impossible, according to Israeli media reports.

Those comments “confirm the malicious intentions of the war criminal Netanyahu, who is obstructing any agreement leading to the release of prisoners and the cessation of aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip”, Hamas said in a statement.

“The movement previously offered to reach a comprehensive exchange deal, during which all prisoners would be released simultaneously, in exchange for a permanent cessation of aggression, a complete withdrawal of the occupation army, and the free flow of aid,” it said.

“However, Netanyahu rejected this offer at the time and continues to evade and create more obstacles.”

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Israel is facing global outrage after satellite imagery revealed alleged preparations for a “concentration camp” in Rafah, where over two million Gazans could be forcibly relocated. As humanitarian conditions worsen, reports emerged of 10 Palestinians killed and 16 injured near Rafah’s only aid centre, with a total of 18 Palestinians killed in Gaza since dawn — many while seeking food.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on a Jabalia school sheltering displaced families killed 10 women and children in a horrifying attack described by witnesses as “beyond horrific.” Israel claims to have killed top PIJ commanders, but criticism mounts over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s failure to secure a Gaza ceasefire during his US visit. With nearly 800 Palestinians killed near aid sites and the destruction of Gaza’s educational institutions labeled “scholasticide” by local universities, UN officials and human rights experts are condemning both Israeli actions and US sanctions against those seeking accountability.
 

Gaza's largest functioning hospital facing disaster, medics warn, as Israel widens offensive​


Doctors have warned of an imminent disaster at Gaza's largest functioning hospital because of critical shortage of fuel and a widening Israeli ground offensive in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Nasser Medical Complex was forced to stop admitting patients on Thursday, when witnesses said Israeli troops and tanks advanced into a cemetery 200m (660ft) away and fired towards nearby camps for displaced families. The forces reportedly withdrew on Friday after digging up several areas.

Medical staff and dozens of patients in intensive care remain inside the hospital, where the fuel shortage threatens to shut down life-saving services.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

However, it said on Friday morning that an armoured brigade was operating in Khan Younis to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure sites" and confiscate weapons. It has previously issued evacuation orders for the areas around the hospital.

A witness told the BBC that Israeli tanks accompanied by excavators and bulldozers advanced from the south of the cemetery near Nasser hospital on Thursday.

The tanks fired shells and bullets as they moved into an area, which was previously farmland, and several tents belonging to displaced families were set on fire, the witness said. Video footage shared online showed a plume of dark smoke rising from the area.

The witness added that Israeli quadcopter drones also fired towards tents in the Namsawi Towers and al-Mawasi areas to force residents to evacuate. Another video showed dozens of people running for cover amid as gunfire rang out.

Medical staff inside Nasser hospital meanwhile sent messages to local journalists expressing their fear. "We are still working in the hospital. The tanks are just metres away. We are closer to death than to life," they wrote.

Civilians standing near the hospital's gates were reportedly injured by stray bullets.

Dr Saber al-Asmar, an emergency physician at Nasser hospital, told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme on Friday that the medical staff had received no call from the Israeli military giving them advance notice of the operation or saying whether they needed to evacuate the facility.

"We didn't get any warning... [There was] shooting all around. We had casualties from the hospital yard," he said.

"[Israeli forces] invaded the area, and then through the microphone, they asked the people to leave immediately, without even to take any of their stuff around the hospital, and people started to run away under the gunshots and shelling."

On Friday morning, the Israeli tanks and troops pulled out of the cemetery and other areas close to the hospital.

Pictures shared online later in the day appeared to show deep trenches dug into the sandy ground, flattened buildings, burnt tents, and crushed vehicles piled on top of each other.

Staff at Nasser hospital said they were assessing if they could resume admitting patients.

"What we really need is just one thing - to stop the killing machine. Just one night, one shift, only one shift, without receiving tens of casualties with severe injuries," Dr Asmar said.

"We are mentally and physically exhausted," he added. "We are working with very minimal resources and with a very big shortage of medical equipment and materials. But we still need to keep working because these are lives we need to save."

On Wednesday, they warned that the hospital was very close to a complete shutdown due to a critical fuel shortage.

They said electricity generators were expected to function for one additional day despite significant efforts to reduce power consumption and restrict electricity to only the most critical departments, including the intensive care and neonatal units.

If the power went out completely, dozens of patients, particularly those dependent of ventilators, would "be in immediate danger and face certain death", the hospital added.

An Israeli military official told Reuters news agency on Thursday that around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that the fuel's distribution around the territory was not the responsibility of the army.

There is a shortage of critical medical supplies, especially those related to trauma care.

During a visit to Nasser hospital last week, the Gaza representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) described it as "one massive trauma ward".

Dr Rik Peeperkorn said in a video that the facility, which normally has a 350-bed capacity, was treating about 700 patients, and that exhausted staff were working 24 hours a day.

The director and doctors reported receiving hundreds of trauma cases over the past four weeks, the majority of them linked to incidents around aid distribution sites, he added.

"There's many boys, young adolescents who are dying or getting the most serious injuries because they try to get some food for their families," he said.

Among them were a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is now tetraplegic, and a 21-year-old man who has a bullet lodged in his neck and is also tetraplegic.

On Friday, 10 people seeking aid were reportedly killed by Israeli military fire near an aid distribution site in the nearby southern city of Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was outraged that one of its staff members, together with a volunteer from the Palestinian Red Crescent, were shot and wounded on Thursday night in Gaza. It did not say who might have been responsible.

The two people shot were part of a mission to evacuate another injured ICRC staff member, who had been unreachable for a week because of fighting.

The mission, the ICRC said, was notified to and agreed with the authorities, and all vehicles were clearly marked and lit. The injured ICRC colleague remains unreachable.

The Israeli military said the incident was under review.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx5zeywgrgo
 
The unchained idiots and savages
====
Israel turned Gaza into ‘graveyard of children and starving people’

Israel plans 'humanitarian city' on ruins: Rights groups call it a concentration zone

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has accused Israel of engineering the “most cruel and Machiavellian scheme to kill” in Gaza, which has become “the graveyard of children and starving people”.

As the Israeli attacks intensify, signs of hunger become visible everywhere across the forcibly starved territory, according to our team on the ground.

Satellite images show Israel’s Gaza ‘concentration camp’ preparations​


Satellite images appear to show Israel has begun preparing the rubble in Rafah for its plan to forcibly displace two million Palestinians into what some United Nations officials call a “concentration camp”.

aje.io

Israel has turned Gaza into ‘graveyard of children and starving people’

The chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees accuses Israel of engineering ‘the most cruel’ scheme to kill.
aje.io aje.io
 
Gaza ceasefire talks on verge of collapse, Palestinian officials say

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Qatar on a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal are on the brink of collapse, according to Palestinian officials familiar with the details of the discussions.

One senior official told the BBC that Israel had "bought time" during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week and deliberately stalled the process by sending a delegation to Doha with no real authority to make decisions on key points of contention.

They include the withdrawal of Israeli troops and humanitarian aid distribution.

Before he left the US on Thursday, Netanyahu had maintained a positive tone, saying he hoped to complete an agreement "in a few days".

He said the proposed deal would see Hamas release half of the 20 living hostages it is still holding and just over half of the 30 dead hostages during a truce lasting 60 days.

Since last Sunday, Israeli and Hamas negotiators have attended eight rounds of indirect "proximity" talks in separate buildings in Doha.

They have been facilitated by Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani and senior Egyptian intelligence officials, and attended by US envoy Brett McGurk.

The mediators have relayed dozens of verbal and written messages between the Hamas delegation and the Israeli delegation, which has included military, security and political officials.

But on Friday night, Palestinian officials familiar with the negotiations told the BBC they were on the verge of collapse, with the two sides deeply divided on several contentious issues.

They said the most recent discussions had focused on two of those issues: the mechanism for delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza and the extent of the Israeli military withdrawal.

Hamas has insisted that humanitarian assistance must enter Gaza and be distributed via United Nations agencies and international relief organisations.

Israel, on the other hand, is pushing for aid distribution via the controversial Israeli- and US-backed mechanism run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

According to mediators involved in the process, there has been some limited progress on bridging the divide over this issue. However, no formal agreement has been reached.

The second major sticking point is over the extent of the Israeli withdrawal.

During the fifth round of talks, Israeli negotiators reportedly handed mediators a written message stating that Israel would maintain a limited "buffer zone" inside Gaza that was between 1km and 1.5km (0.6-0.9 miles) deep.

Hamas, according to a Palestinian official who attended at least two of the rounds of talks, viewed this proposal as a possible starting point for compromise.

However, when Hamas requested and received a map outlining Israel's proposed withdrawal zones, the document contradicted the earlier message, showing far deeper military positions. The map was said to indicate buffer zones that were up to 3km (1.8 miles) deep in certain areas and confirmed a continued Israeli presence in vast swathes of territory.

They covered all of the southern city of Rafah, 85% of the village of Khuzaa east of Khan Younis, substantial parts of the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, and eastern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, such as Tuffah, Shejaiya and Zeitoun.

Hamas officials saw the map as a bad-faith manoeuvre by Israel, further eroding trust between the sides.

Palestinian officials accused the Israeli delegation of deliberately stalling to create a positive diplomatic backdrop for the Israeli prime minister's recent visit to Washington.

"They were never serious about these talks," one senior Palestinian negotiator told the BBC. "They used these rounds to buy time and project a false image of progress."

The official also claimed that Israel was pursuing a long-term strategy of forced displacement under the guise of humanitarian planning.

He alleged that Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz's plan to move Palestinians to a "humanitarian city" in Rafah was part of a broader effort to permanently relocate them.

"The goal of concentrating civilians near the Egyptian border is to pave the way for their expulsion either across the Rafah crossing into Egypt or out through the sea," the official said.

On Monday, Katz briefed Israeli reporters that he had instructed the military to prepare a plan for a new camp in Rafah that would initially house about 600,000 Palestinians - and eventually the whole 2.1 million population.

According to the plan, the Palestinians would be security screened by Israeli forces before being allowed in and not permitted to leave.

Critics, both domestically and internationally, have condemned the proposal, with human rights groups, academics and lawyers calling it a blueprint for a "concentration camp".

With the talks at a critical juncture, the Palestinian side is calling on the US to intervene more forcefully and pressure Israel to make meaningful concessions.

Without such intervention, mediators warn, the Doha negotiations could collapse entirely.

That is a scenario that would further complicate regional efforts to reach a durable ceasefire and avert a broader humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Diplomats in Doha say there is still a narrow window for compromise, but that the situation remains fragile.

"This process is hanging by a thread," one regional official said. "Unless something changes dramatically and quickly, we may be heading towards a breakdown."

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,823 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 
Israeli military operations in Gaza have intensified, with nearly 800 Palestinians, many of them aid seekers, reportedly killed while trying to access humanitarian food supplies, according to the United Nations. The UN warns that Gaza's aid workers face grave danger amid relentless Israeli bombardments, while UN staff and Red Cross personnel have also come under fire. Israel has issued fresh warnings to Gaza residents, even restricting sea access. Meanwhile, controversial plans to displace over 2 million Palestinians to Rafah under the guise of a “humanitarian city” have drawn sharp criticism from analysts and human rights experts, who call it an immoral act of war. UN expert Francesca Albanese, under U.S. sanctions, continues to denounce what she terms as genocide. Violence in the occupied West Bank is also escalating, with Israeli settlers—often backed by soldiers—attacking Palestinians, resulting in deaths and hundreds of injuries. Analysts argue these actions reflect a long-standing policy of displacement and suppression.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...li-forces-killed-hundreds-seeking-aid-in-gaza
 
Two Palestinians killed in West Bank settler attack, health ministry says

Two Palestinians, one a dual US citizen, have been killed in an attack by Israeli settlers on a town in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military said stones were thrown at Israelis near Sinjil and that "a violent confrontation developed in the area".

It added that security forces were looking into the reports of one Palestinian being killed, and the incident involving the second was under review.

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since Hamas's attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.

The UN says at least 910 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, 13 by Israeli settlers, and another seven by either Israeli forces or settlers. At least 44 Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank.

Sayfollah Musallet, a 23-year-old dual US citizen from Florida, was fatally beaten during the incident on Friday evening in Sinjil, the Palestinian ministry said.

The second man, Mohammed al-Shalabi, also 23, died after being shot in the chest, it added.

The US state department said it was "aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the West Bank", and that it had no further comment "out of respect for the privacy of the family".

Sayfollah Musallet, a businessman whose nickname was Saif, travelled from his home in Tampa to the West Bank on 4 June, according to his family.

A statement alleged that he was "brutally beaten to death by Israeli settlers while he was protecting his family's land from settlers who were attempting to steal it".

"Israeli settlers surrounded Saif for over three hours as paramedics attempted to reach him, but the mob of settlers blocked the ambulance and paramedics from providing life-saving aid."

"After the mob of Israeli settlers cleared, Saif's younger brother rushed to carry his brother to the ambulance. Saif died before making it to the hospital."

The statement added: "We demand the US state department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes."

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Mohammed al-Shalabi was from the town of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, just south of Sinjil.

It cited the Palestinian health ministry as saying that he was shot in the chest by settlers, during the same attack in which Sayfollah Musallet was killed.

He was left bleeding for hours before paramedics were able to reach him, it added.

Wafa reported than another 10 Palestinians from Sinjil and neighbouring areas were injured in the clashes with settlers who were armed with automatic rifles.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday night that "terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli civilians adjacent to Sinjil", lightly injuring two of them.

"A violent confrontation developed in the area involving Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes, and rock hurling."

The military said soldiers, police and paramilitary Border Police forces were dispatched to the area and "used riot dispersal means in response to the violent confrontation".

It added that it was "aware of reports regarding a Palestinian civilian killed and a number of injured Palestinians as a result of the confrontation", and that they were being looked into by the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Police.

When asked by the BBC on Saturday for a response to the reports that a second Palestinian was killed, the military said: "The situation is under review".

Separately, the US embassy in Jerusalem has said it condemns recent violence by Israeli settlers against the Christian town of Taybeh in the West Bank.

Most of the land there is owned by Palestinian-Americans and, according to locals, some 300 residents are US passport holders.

Attacks, including by masked men torching cars and attacking homes, have ramped up. On Monday, settlers set fields ablaze close to a fifth-Century church, leading to a call for international action from the town's priests.

The State Department said in response it had no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas and that protecting Christians was a priority for President Donald Trump.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The settlements are considered illegal under international law - a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year - although Israel disputes this.

There has been a sharp increase in the number and severity of settler attacks in the West Bank over the same period. The UN says there were 136 attacks by settlers resulting in casualties or property damage in May alone.

On Thursday, a 22-year-old Israeli security guard Shalev Zvuluny was shot and killed when two Palestinian men opened fire and tried to stab passerbys in the car park of a shopping centre in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, in the south of the West Bank.

The attackers were shot dead by soldiers and armed civilians present at the scene, police said.

BBC
 
Gaza hospital says 24 people killed near aid site as witnesses blame IDF

The Nasser hospital in southern Gaza has said 24 people have been killed near an aid distribution site.

Palestinians who were present at the site said Israeli troops opened fire as people were trying to access food on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there were "no known injured individuals" from IDF fire near the site.

Separately, an Israeli military official said warning shots were fired to disperse people who the IDF believed were a threat.

The claims by both sides have not been independently verified. Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza.

Footage seen by the BBC later on Saturday showed what appeared to be a number of body bags at Nasser hospital's courtyard surrounded by nurses and people in blood-stained clothes.

In another video, a man said people were waiting to get aid when they came under targeted fire for five minutes. A paramedic accused Israeli troops of killing in cold blood.

The videos have not been verified by the BBC.

Reuters news agency said it had spoken to witnesses who described people being shot in the head and torso.

There have been almost daily reports of people being killed by Israeli fire while seeking food in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip in March, and later resumed its military offensive against Hamas, ending a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the Palestinian armed group to release Israeli hostages.

Although the blockade was partially eased in late May as warnings grew of a looming famine, there are still severe shortages of food, as well as medicine and fuel.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, says there are thousands of malnourished children across the territory, with more cases detected every day.

In addition to allowing in some UN aid lorries, Israel and the US set up a new aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying they wanted to prevent Hamas from stealing aid.

On Friday, the UN human rights office said that it had so far recorded 798 aid-related killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF's sites, which are operated by US private security contractors and located inside military zones in southern and central Gaza.

The other 183 killings were recorded near UN and other aid convoys.

The Israeli military said it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise "possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible".

The GHF accused the UN of using "false and misleading" statistics from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Earlier this month, a former security contractor for the GHF told the BBC he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who had posed no threat. The GHF said the allegations were categorically false.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,823 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 
Children fetching water killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, emergency officials say

Ten people, including six children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike while waiting to fill water containers in central Gaza on Sunday, emergency service officials say.

Their bodies were sent to Nuseirat's al-Awda Hospital, which also treated 16 injured people, seven of them children, according to a doctor there.

Eyewitnesses said a drone fired a missile at a crowd of people queuing with empty jerry cans next to a water tanker in the heart of the al-Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli military has been asked to comment.

Unverified footage shared online after the strike showed bloodied children and lifeless bodies, with screams of panic and desperation.

Residents rushed to the scene and transported the wounded using private vehicles and donkey carts.

The strike came as Israeli aerial attacks across the Gaza Strip have escalated.

A spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense Agency said 19 other Palestinians had been killed on Sunday, in three separate strikes on residential buildings in central Gaza and Gaza City.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,882 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has been displaced multiple times.

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed. The healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

This week, for the first time in 130 days, 75,000 litres of fuel was allowed into Gaza - "far from enough to meet the daily needs of the population and vital civilian aid operations", the United Nations said.

Nine UN agencies warned on Saturday that Gaza's fuel shortage had reached "critical levels", and if fuel ran out, it would affect hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks and bakeries.

"Hospitals are already going dark, maternity, neonatal and intensive care units are failing, and ambulances can no longer move," the UN said.

BBC
 

Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water, IDF blames malfunction​


At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said, in an Israeli strike which the military said missed its target.
The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of metres from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.
The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers.
Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

SOURCE: REUTERS
 
Father of Israeli captive says ceasefire hopes crushed by ‘reality of stagnation’


Kobi, father of Israeli hostage Segev Kalfon, has voiced deep frustration over stalled ceasefire talks, describing the situation as a “reality of stagnation that is difficult to bear”. After returning from Washington with what he called “a certain hope” of a breakthrough, he found negotiations “stuck” and the deal no closer. “We are in a race against time,” Kobi told Israeli radio, as his son remains held in Gaza. His remarks echo growing public pressure on leaders to reach an agreement that secures the hostages’ release.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
The savagery of idiots continues
====
Fuel blockade continues to worsen Gaza’s water crisis

Gaza’s water crisis has intensified since Israel blocked nearly all fuel shipments into the enclave on March 2. With no fuel, desalination plants, wastewater treatment facilities and pumping stations have largely shut down.

Families, many of them with children, are spending hours each day under the scorching sun searching for a few litres of water just to survive.

Asem Alnabih, a spokesperson for Gaza’s municipality, said yesterday that only 12 of more than 70 municipal wells remain operational.

“We’re on the verge of death. Water can reach only 50 percent of the city,” Alnabih told Al Jazeera, adding that the rest get nothing.

Aya Fayoumi, a displaced Palestinian, says her family doesn’t get enough water for their basic needs.

“There’s never any water in the toilets. There’s barely enough drinking water. So we have nothing left for personal hygiene or to wash clothes,” she said.

According to the International Rescue Committee, most people in Gaza now receive far less than the World Health Organization’s emergency minimum of 15 litres per person per day.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
‘Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM

The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert has told the Guardian.

Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert said, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” he said, when asked about the plans laid out by Israel Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said.

Katz has ordered the military to start drawing up operational plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to house initially 600,000 people and eventually the entire Palestinian population.

“If they [Palestinians] will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city’, then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing. It hasn’t yet happened,” Olmert said. That would be “the inevitable interpretation” of any attempt to create a camp for hundreds of thousands of people, he said.

Olmert did not consider Israel’s current campaign was ethnic cleansing because, he said, evacuating civilians to protect them from fighting was legal under international law, and Palestinians had returned to areas where military operations had finished.

The “humanitarian city” project is backed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area Katz envisages for the camp is a sticking point in the faltering negotiations for a ceasefire deal, Israeli media have reported.

Olmert said that after months of violent rhetoric, including calls from ministers to “cleanse” Gaza and projects to build Israeli settlements there, government claims that the “humanitarian city” aimed to protect Palestinians were not credible.

“When they build a camp where they [plan to] ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this [is that] it is not to save [Palestinians]. It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have, at least.”

Israeli human rights lawyers and scholars have described the plan as a blueprint for crimes against humanity and some have warned that if implemented, “under certain conditions it could amount to the crime of genocide”.

Other Israelis who have described the planned “humanitarian city” as a concentration camp have been attacked for invoking comparisons to Nazi Germany, when the government says it is designed to protect Palestinians. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial centre, accused one journalist of “a serious and inappropriate distortion of the meaning of the Holocaust”.

Olmert, who led Israel from 2006 to 2009, spoke to the Guardian on the day funerals were held in the occupied West Bank for two Palestinian men, one an American citizen, who had been killed by Israeli settlers.

The latest deaths came after a campaign of violent intimidation that has forced the residents of several villages to flee their homes over the past two years.

The attacks were war crimes, Olmert said. “[It is] unforgivable. Unacceptable. There are continuous operations organised, orchestrated in the most brutal, criminal manner by a large group.”

The attackers are often called “hilltop youth” in Israel and described as fringe extremists. Olmert said he preferred the term “hilltop atrocities” to describe the young men whose campaign of spiralling violence was carried out with near-total impunity.

“There is no way that they can operate in such a consistent, massive and widespread manner without a framework of support and protection which is provided by the [Israeli] authorities in the [occupied Palestinian] territories,” he said.

Olmert described extremist cabinet ministers who backed violence in Gaza and the West Bank – where they have authorised major settlement expansions and control law enforcement with a view to expanding the borders of Israel – as a greater threat to the country’s long-term security than any external foe. “These guys are the enemy from within,” he said.

Extreme suffering in Gaza and settler atrocities in the West Bank were fuelling growing anger against Israel that cannot all be written off as antisemitism, Olmert said.

“In the United States there is more and more and more expanding expressions of hatred to Israel,” he said. “We make a discount to ourselves saying: ‘They are antisemites.’ I don’t think that they are only antisemites, I think many of them are anti-Israel because of what they watch on television, what they watch on social networks.

“This is a painful but normal reaction of people who say: ‘Hey, you guys have crossed every possible line.’”

Attitudes inside Israel might start to shift only when Israelis started to feel the burden of international pressure, he said, calling for stronger international intervention in the absence of serious political opposition at home. He also criticised the Israeli media for its failure to report on violence against Palestinians.

Olmert backed the initial campaign against Hamas after the 7 October 2023 attacks. But he said that, by this spring, when the Israeli government “publicly and in a brutal manner” abandoned negotiations for a permanent end to fighting, he had reached the conclusion his country was committing war crimes.

“Ashamed and heartbroken” that a war of self-defence had become something else, he decided to speak out. “What can I do to change the attitude, except for number one, recognising these evils, and number two, to criticise them and to make sure the international public opinion knows there are [other] voices, many voices in Israel?” he asked.

He attributed what he called war crimes to negligence and a willingness to tolerate unconscionable levels of death and devastation, rather than an organised campaign of brutality. “[Did commanders] give an order? Never,” Olmert said.

Instead, he believes the military looked away when things were done that would inevitably “cause the killing of a large number of non-involved people”. He said: “That is why I cannot refrain from accusing this government of being responsible for war crimes committed.”

Despite the devastation in Gaza, as the last Israeli premier to seriously attempt to reach a negotiated solution with Palestinians, Olmert still hopes that a two-state solution is possible.

He is working with the former Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa to push for one internationally, and even believes that a historic settlement could be in reach – an end to the war in Gaza in exchange for normalisation of ties with Saudi Arabia – if only Netanyahu was able or willing to take it.

Instead Olmert was stunned to see Netanyahu, a man who has an arrest warrant for war crimes from the international criminal court, nominating Donald Trump for a Nobel peace prize.

www.theguardian.com

‘Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM

Ehud Olmert says forcing people into camp would be ethnic cleansing, and anger at Israel is not all down to antisemitism
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Ceasefire negotiations not at stalemate, says Qatar

As we reported earlier, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry held a press briefing. Here are some of the major talking points from there:

Negotiations for a ceasefire have not stopped but are still in the early stages.
Efforts are being made around the clock to reach an agreement.
Negotiation teams and mediators are still in Doha.
There is intense communication between Qatar and the US.
Our meetings with both parties to the conflict over Gaza are conducted separately to reach a framework agreement.
We cannot accept the absence of accountability for Israel’s absurd behaviour in the region, which must be stopped internationally.
No mediator can set a timeframe for negotiations, whether on Gaza or any other issue.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
At least 20 killed in crush at US-backed GHF aid site in Gaza

At least 20 people have been killed in a crush at an aid distribution centre in southern Gaza run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the organisation and a local hospital say.

The GHF said 19 were trampled to death and one was stabbed "amid a chaotic and dangerous surge" at its site in the Khan Younis area. It added that it believed people "armed and affiliated with Hamas" fomented unrest.

But Gaza's Hamas-run Government Media Office denied this claim and accused the GHF of trying to "cover up" a crime.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it had received the bodies of 21 people who died from suffocation as a result of tear gas inhalation and a crush at the aid site.

It is the first time the GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its aid sites.

The media office accused the US private security contractors, who distribute aid for the GHF, of causing the crush by closing the gates of the site after thousands of people had gathered in narrow channels to collect food, and then firing canisters of tear gas and live rounds towards them.

In a graphic video shared on social media and verified by the BBC, a witness standing on a cart filled with the bodies of six boys and men at Nasser hospital said they had been crushed between fences set up at the GHF site while waiting for food handouts.

"They are children. What is it their fault dying for aid?" the man shouts as he holds up the body of one of the boys.

"What happened is [that] at the door of the aid [site], the foreigners made a fence here and a fence here," he gestured. "The boys went to the front and the people came and stepped on them."

There have been almost daily reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking aid since the GHF began operations in late May. Witnesses say most have been shot by Israeli forces.

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that it had so far recorded 674 killings in the vicinity of the GHF's four sites in southern and central Gaza over the past six weeks. Another 201 killings had been recorded along routes of UN and other aid convoys, it added.

Before Wednesday, the GHF had denied that there had been any deadly incidents in close proximity to its sites and accused the UN of using "false and misleading" figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military said last week that it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise "possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible".

The GHF uses private security contractors to distribute aid from sites in Israeli military zones.

The UN refuses to co-operate with it, describing its set up as unethical.

BBC
 
Latest from Middle East

Attacks on Syria:

* The Israeli military conducted air attacks on Damascus, specifically targeting the Syrian Defence Ministry and an area near the presidential palace. These strikes resulted in at least one death and 18 injuries.
* These attacks came after Israel threatened to escalate military action if Syrian government forces did not withdraw from Suwayda, where conflicts have been reported between Druze and security forces.
* Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, indicated a significant escalation, posting a video with the caption "The heavy blows have started."

Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza:

* The situation in the Gaza Strip remains critical, with the Health Ministry reporting 21 deaths at a food distribution site.
* The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) states that one in ten children screened in Gaza clinics are suffering from malnutrition due to Israel's ongoing siege, which has led to a man-made starvation crisis.
* According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the war in Gaza has resulted in 58,479 deaths and 139,355 injuries.
International Reactions:
* The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) condemned the Israeli attacks on Syria, calling them a "flagrant violation" of Syria's sovereignty and a threat to regional stability.
* Turkiye also criticized the attacks, stating that they are "sabotaging" peace efforts in Syria.
* Analysts suggest that the Syrian government's ability to respond militarily is limited, relying instead on international partners to exert pressure on Israel.
* The US special envoy to Syria condemned the violence in Suwayda and called for dialogue and accountability.

Source: Al Jazeera
 

EU accused of ‘cruel and unlawful betrayal’ of Palestinians over failure to confront Israel​


The EU has been accused of a “cruel and unlawful betrayal” of Palestinians and European values after failing to take action to impose sanctions on Israel over the war in Gaza.

The stinging rebuke from Amnesty International, echoed by other human rights organisations, came after EU ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday declined to endorse any measures to sanction Israel over the brutal war in Gaza and endemic violence in the West Bank.

The EU’s most senior diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the bloc would keep “options on the table” to pressure Israel’s government if there was no improvement in the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza. According to several diplomatic sources she did not endorse any one of 10 sanctions options drawn up by her team, after an earlier EU review found “indications” Israel was in breach of human rights commitments.

Kallas said Israel needed to “take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground”, which earlier in the day she had described as catastrophic. She was meeting EU foreign affairs ministers days after announcing a potentially significant agreement with Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where 2.1 million people face famine and drought caused by the collapse of water systems.

Syria’s Druze reach new ceasefire deal with government in Sweida, religious leader says – Middle East crisis live
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EU sources say the flow of aid into the territory has increased to about 80 trucks a day, but distribution remains problematic. With no clear signs that new aid inflows were reaching people over the weekend, Palestinians have continued to risk their lives queueing for food and water at sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed logistics group. Officials iin Gazareported that in one 24-hour period over the weekend, 139 people were killed, including women and children queueing for food. The UN said about 850 Palestinians in the enclave had been killed while waiting to receive aid since May, both at GHF distribution points and elsewhere.

Ministers were not expected to endorse any of the 10 sanctions options, which include full suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement, a trade and cooperation deal. Suspending this deal is widely seen as a non-starter as it requires unanimous support of member states.

Israel’s closest EU allies – Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic – oppose sanctions, especially now Israel has struck the humanitarian deal with the EU. Hungary also continues to veto EU sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Even countries strongly supportive of the Palestinian cause, such as Ireland, have not called for any specific measures, but await proposals from Kallas. Only Spain has come out clearly for a suspension of the association agreement.

Source: The Guardian
 
So idiot apartheid government after Christians too now
====
Survivors of Gaza church attack describe ‘totally horrifying’ ordeal

Witnesses of Israel’s deadly attack on Gaza’s only Catholic church have described their experiences to Al Jazeera.

Shadi Abu Dawoud, a 47-year-old Palestinian Christian, said the church’s main hall was housing dozens of displaced citizens, mainly children and elderly people, and that all were “peaceful civilians”.

“My mother suffered serious injuries in the head; she was wandering in the church’s yard with other elderly women [when Israeli forces attacked],” he said.

“We were taken by surprise by this Israeli air strike. This is a barbaric and unjustifiable act.

Mohammed Abu Hashem, a 69-year-old man who lives beside the church, said he was in the ruins of his home when there was a huge explosion that covered the area in black smoke, adding that he never thought the Israelis would attack the church.

“The Israeli air strike was massive, totally horrifying,” he said. “The horror we are living in is beyond description. No words could describe what we are living through. It is not even close to what you watch [on TV] or hear.”

Source: Al Jazeera
 
IMG_1087.jpeg

The Zionist supporting Yahud are truly an evil people.

Soulless, blood thirsty, selfish, every evil trait you can think of, and described in the Quran perfectly.

They killed 70 prophets in 1 day it’s said. And today when there are no more prophets they go after toddlers, women, children, elderly and men not in battle trying to murder them in the worst way possible.

Allah hamay himmat aur bahadury atta farmaye Ameen, this can’t go on.
 
Suleiman said:
View attachment 156184

The Zionist supporting Yahud are truly an evil people.

Soulless, blood thirsty, selfish, every evil trait you can think of, and described in the Quran perfectly.

They killed 70 prophets in 1 day it’s said. And today when there are no more prophets they go after toddlers, women, children, elderly and men not in battle trying to murder them in the worst way possible.

Allah hamay himmat aur bahadury atta farmaye Ameen, this can’t go on.
Click to expand...

Their Time will come bro. Almighty made a example of Firaun for a reason!
 
West Bank Displacement Surges Amid Settler and Army Violence

The occupied West Bank is witnessing escalating violence as Israeli army operations and settler attacks intensify during the ongoing Gaza war. According to the UN’s humanitarian agency, at least 14 Palestinians were killed and 355 injured last month, with over 129 settler attacks reported. Since January, more than 2,200 settler assaults have resulted in over 5,200 Palestinian injuries and forced nearly 36,000 people from their homes due to raids, demolitions, or violence. The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate amid mounting displacement and insecurity.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Hamas says Israel rejected ceasefire deal including release of all captives, adds ready for lengthy battle

In his first video message since March 6, the spokesperson of Hamas’s military wing Qassam Brigades has said the Palestinian group repeatedly offered to release all captives at once to conclude a comprehensive ceasefire deal, but Israel rejected the proposal.

Abu Obeida said the group would not agree to an interim truce in the future if a ceasefire agreement was not reached and accused Israel of intransigence.

His comments come as stuttering indirect talks have resumed in Qatar, but with no progress.

If Israel disavows this round of talks, the spokesperson said, Hamas “will not guarantee a return to the formula of partial [swap] deals or the proposal of the 10 prisoners”.

Abu Obeida also said Hamas fighters are “ready to continue a long battle of attrition”.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Trump says 10 Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza ‘very shortly’

Ten more hostages will be released from Gaza “very shortly”, Donald Trump said at the White House Friday. The news comes as the president continues to push for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“We got most of the hostages back. We’re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly,” Trump said during a dinner with Republican senators. He also praised his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “fantastic”.

The current Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposal includes terms calling for the return of 10 hostages, and the remains of 18 others. In exchange, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Earlier on Friday, Axios reported that the director of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, visited Washington this week in hope that the United States would support its efforts to ask other countries to take in the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still living in Gaza. Mossad chief David Barnea told Witkoff that Israel has discussed relocating Palestinians to Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.

Trump has boasted that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas would be fothcoming since posting on his social media platform on 1 July that Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza.

Last week, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House, where he presented Trump with a copy of a letter he had sent to the Nobel committee nominating the president for a Nobel peace prize.

That same week, Qatari officials mediated indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire.

A spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas told Reuters on Friday that the group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, but could revert to insisting on a full package deal if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations.

www.theguardian.com

Trump says 10 Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza ‘very shortly’

US president, who is pushing for ceasefire deal in Gaza, praises Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as ‘fantastic’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
In Gaza, the humanitarian crisis deepened as a newborn baby died from malnutrition, highlighting severe shortages of food and medical supplies. Israeli air strikes continued across the enclave, killing more than 100 Palestinians in displacement zones. The ongoing blockade has pushed living conditions to catastrophic levels, with aid organisations warning of famine-like situations. Growing international concern has led to renewed calls for immediate humanitarian access and a ceasefire.

Source: Al Jazeera live updates
 

The insanity of occupiers continue​

===

Israel kills 116 in Gaza, starvation claims life of Palestinian baby​

  • Two more Palestinians, including a weeks-old baby, have succumbed to starvation, director of al-Shifa Hospital tells Al Jazeera, as UN says thousands in Gaza on the “verge of catastrophic hunger”.
  • At least 116 Palestinians, including 38 people near food aid sites in Rafah, killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza today.
  • Syria’s president announces “immediate ceasefire” in Suwayda province.
  • Hamas said Israel rejected a ceasefire proposal that would have seen the release of all remaining captives held in Gaza, and pledged it was prepared for a lengthy war if there is no deal.
  • Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 58,765 people and wounded 140,485. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Source: Al Jazeera
 
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