[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Israeli cabinet to discuss partial Gaza deal amid internal debate

The Israeli cabinet is set to hold a special session to review the future of its military operations in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports, citing Israel’s centre-right newspaper Israel Hayom. According to the report, the meeting will include security officials, coalition bloc leaders, and Strategic A

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli cabinet to discuss partial Gaza deal amid internal debate

FE ONLINE DESK
Published :
Jun 29, 2025 22:39
Updated :
Jun 29, 2025 22:39

An Israeli tank manoeuvres near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Israel, April 10, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Files

The Israeli cabinet is set to hold a special session to review the future of its military operations in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports, citing Israel’s centre-right newspaper Israel Hayom.

According to the report, the meeting will include security officials, coalition bloc leaders, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. The discussion is expected to focus on a possible partial agreement that includes a temporary ceasefire.

Chief of Staff General Eyal Zamir is scheduled to brief the cabinet on the progress of current combat operations. While the Israeli military is likely to present the ground offensive as nearing completion, several government officials reportedly disagree, arguing that Hamas remains active and the stated war objectives have not been fulfilled.

The report highlights that the “Witkoff Plan,” named after US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, is currently under serious consideration. The plan proposes a temporary ceasefire and a captive-prisoner exchange but leaves the option open for resuming hostilities later. General Zamir is said to support this proposal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to uphold his original goal of dismantling Hamas.

However, concerns remain within the cabinet that sustained pressure from the United States could transform a temporary agreement into a long-term arrangement, effectively altering the nature of Israel’s military objectives in Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire. "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Trump posted on hi

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 29, 2025 17:37
Updated :
Jun 29, 2025 17:37

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a tent, according to Gaza's health ministry, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 29, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.

"Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel's offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.

But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.

"The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations," the military said.

The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army's bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.

In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said.

NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH

The escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.

Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened in the wake of US and Israeli bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group's outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end it if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population, plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis and left much of it in ruins.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 37, including children

He said the dead included three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.

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Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 37, including children
AFPGaza City, Palestinian Territories
Published: 29 Jun 2025, 08: 27

Boys mourn by the body of a Palestinian man who was killed a day earlier in Israeli fire while seeking food aid, during his funeral at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 18 June, 2025. Gaza's civil defence agency said 30 people were killed by Israeli fire in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, including 11 who were seeking aid. AFP

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 37 people in the devastated territory on Saturday, including at least nine children who died in strikes.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP 35 people were killed in seven Israeli drone and air strikes in various locations, and two others by Israeli fire while waiting for food aid in the Netzarim zone in central Gaza.

He said the dead included three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.

Bassal said at least six more children died in a neighbourhood in the northeast of Gaza City, including some in an air strike near a school where displaced people were sheltering.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment by Saturday evening.

As international criticism mounted over civilian deaths in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Saturday that his country “stands ready, Europe as well, to contribute to the safety of food distribution” in Gaza.

Such an initiative, he added, would also deal with Israeli concerns that armed groups such as Hamas were intercepting the aid.

Barrot did not provide any details on how France could help secure aid distribution to Gaza’s civilians.

Restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.

AFP images showed mourners weeping over the bodies of seven people, including at least two children, wrapped in white shrouds and blankets at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Video footage filmed from southern Israel showed smoke rising over northern Gaza after blasts.

Other AFP footage filmed in Gaza City showed a cloud of smoke rising from buildings after a strike.

In Jabalia, an AFP photographer saw civil defence rescuers aiding a man with blood on his backGaza ceasefire drive

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in October 2023 in response to a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

After claiming victory in a 12-day war against Iran that ended with a ceasefire on June 24, the Israeli military said it would refocus on its offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian militants still hold Israeli hostages.

Qatar said on Saturday that it and fellow mediators the United States and Egypt were engaging with Israel and Hamas to build on momentum from the ceasefire with Iran and work towards a Gaza truce.

“If we don’t utilise this window of opportunity and this momentum, it’s an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don’t want to see that again,” said Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,412 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu sees 'opportunities' to free Gaza hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his country's "victory" over Iran in their 12-day war had created "opportunities", including for freeing hostages held in Gaza.

en.prothomalo.com

Netanyahu sees 'opportunities' to free Gaza hostages

AFP Jerusalem
Published: 30 Jun 2025, 10: 21

Israel`s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. AFP file photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his country's "victory" over Iran in their 12-day war had created "opportunities", including for freeing hostages held in Gaza.

"Many opportunities have opened up now following this victory. First of all, to rescue the hostages," Netanyahu said in an address to officers of the security services.

"Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both goals," he added, referring to his country's campaign to crush the Palestinian militant group.

In a statement late Sunday, the main group representing hostages' families welcomed "the fact that after 20 months, the return of the hostages has finally been designated as the top priority by the prime minister".

"This is a very important statement that must translate into a single comprehensive deal to bring back all 50 hostages and end the fighting in Gaza," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Of these, 49 are still believed to be held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas also holds the body of an Israeli soldier killed there in 2014.

The forum called for the hostages' "release, not rescue".

"The only way to free them all is through a comprehensive deal and an end to the fighting, without rescue operations that endanger both the hostages and (Israeli) soldiers."

The 7 October attack triggered a fierce Israeli offensive to destroy Hamas and free the hostages.

That campaign has killed at least 56,500 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.

Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces kill 34 in Gaza as ceasefire momentum builds

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 34 people on Monday, including 11 waiting for aid, as momentum built behind a ceasefire push for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory...

www.newagebd.net

Israeli forces kill 34 in Gaza as ceasefire momentum builds
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 01 July, 2025, 00:44

Palestinian children line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in Nuseirat on Monday. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 34 people on Monday, including 11 waiting for aid, as momentum built behind a ceasefire push for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a day earlier that his country’s ‘victory’ over Iran had created ‘opportunities’, including for freeing hostages held by militants in Gaza.

His comments raised hopes for a new ceasefire in the conflict that has created dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Key mediator Qatar said Monday that ‘momentum’ had been created by the Iran-Israel ceasefire.

‘We won’t hold our breath for this to happen today and tomorrow, but we believe that the elements are in place to push forward towards restarting the talks,’ foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told journalists.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said that 34 people had been killed by Israeli strikes or gunfire since midnight.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that ‘11 people were killed near aid distribution points in the central and southern parts of the territory.’

Eyewitnesses and local authorities have reported repeated killings of Palestinians near distribution centres over recent weeks.

Samir Abu Jarbou, 28, said by phone that he had gone with four relatives to pick up food aid in an area of central Gaza around midnight.

‘Suddenly the Israeli army opened fire, and drones started shooting. We ran away and got nothing,’ he said.

‘The situation is catastrophic. We are suffering from terrible hunger. My only wish is to succeed in getting a bag of flour to feed my seven siblings.’

Bassal said 23 people were killed in at least seven separate strikes across the territory, mainly in the north.

When asked for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it needed more information to look into the reports.

Restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the full tolls and details provided by rescuers.

Israel’s military issued a fresh evacuation order on Monday, for several areas in and around Gaza City.

‘For your safety, immediately evacuate further westward and southward toward Al-Mawasi,’ the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.

Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated strikes.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.​

 

[Saif]

As Gaza nears erasure, will the world still keep looking away?

Palestine’s plight demands immediate global actions

www.thedailystar.net

As Gaza nears erasure, will the world still keep looking away?
Palestine’s plight demands immediate global actions

VISUAL: STAR

The world has likely never witnessed horrors of the kind we are now seeing in Palestine—not, at least, since the end of World War II. According to Gaza's health ministry, over 56,300 people have died in Gaza since Israel launched its latest campaign against the Palestinians in October 2023. But even that figure appears to be greatly understated, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. The newspaper estimates that nearly 100,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which represents about four percent of its population.

According to Haaretz, in addition to the high number of deaths directly caused by Israeli attacks, many have also died from indirect effects such as hunger, cold, and disease amid the collapse of Gaza's healthcare system. Earlier, the World Health Organization reported that at least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed as a result of Israel's continued aggression. There is, therefore, every reason to believe that the death toll is much higher than the ministry's estimate.

Only last week, 400 people were killed and over 3,000 wounded during an "aid" operation. As starving civilians gathered for aid in massive numbers, Israeli troops opened fire, killing dozens as they tried to collect a few kilos of flour or canned goods. Palestinians have dubbed this "the hunger games." That people are willing to risk their lives to collect aid, despite knowing the brutality that awaits them, is an indication of the level of desperation and destitution they have been reduced to.

The Haaretz report was based on a study conducted by Prof Michael Spagat, a leading expert on mortality in violent conflicts. His findings suggest that 56 percent of those killed have been either children under the age of 18 or women—an exceptional figure compared to almost every other conflict since World War II. Moreover, while the overall number of war victims in Syria, Ukraine, and Sudan may be higher in absolute terms, Gaza appears to rank first both in the ratio of combatants to non-combatants killed, and in the death rate relative to population size. These are staggering findings that clearly reveal the severity of the war crimes being committed by Israel against the Palestinians.

It is apparent that Israel is on the verge of completely eradicating—or displacing—the remaining population from Gaza and, perhaps eventually, from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. While this is unfolding, US President Donald Trump recently stated that he believes a ceasefire could be reached within a week. The unfortunate reality, however, is that we have heard such rhetoric many times before. The fact remains that Israel has continued its genocidal campaign with both direct and indirect support from the West, including the US. This must stop.

The West must abandon its double standards regarding whose human rights matter, and compel Israel to end its aggression. A permanent solution to the Gaza crisis must be found by recognising and ensuring full autonomy for a Palestinian state.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces kill over 50 as ceasefire calls mount, Gaza rescuers say

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 51 people on Monday, including 24 at a seafront rest area, as fresh calls grew for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. The swift resolution of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran has revived hopes for a halt to the...

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Israeli forces kill over 50 as ceasefire calls mount, Gaza rescuers say

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.

AFP Gaza City, Palestinian Territories
Published: 01 Jul 2025, 08: 31

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 51 people on Monday, including 24 at a seafront rest area, as fresh calls grew for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The swift resolution of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran has revived hopes for a halt to the fighting in Gaza, where more than 20 months of combat have created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million.

US President Donald Trump has recently urged Israel to “make the deal in Gaza”, while key mediator Qatar said Monday that “momentum” had been created by the truce with Iran last week.

But on the ground, Israel has continued to pursue its offensive across the Palestinian territory in a bid to destroy the militant group Hamas.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 51 people had been killed by Israeli forces on Monday, including 24 in a strike on a rest area on Gaza City’s seafront.

“The place is always crowded with people because the rest area offers drinks, family seating and internet access,” eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab, 26, told AFP, recalling a “huge explosion that shook the area”.

“I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned... It was a scene that made your skin crawl.”

Another eyewitness, Bilal Awkal, 35, said “blood covered the ground and screams filled the air”.

“Women and children were everywhere, like a scene from a movie about the end of the world.”

Approached for comment by AFP, the Israeli army said it was “looking into” the reports.

The Hamas government media office reported that photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab was among those killed in the strike.

Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the territory.

‘Targeting was deliberate’

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 27 others were killed by Israeli strikes or fire across Gaza, including 11 near aid points in the centre and south.

Eyewitnesses and local authorities have reported repeated killings of Palestinians near distribution centres in recent weeks, after Israel began allowing in a trickle of aid at the end of May.

Samir Abu Jarbou, 28, told AFP by phone that he had gone with relatives to pick up food in an area of central Gaza around midnight.

“Suddenly the (Israeli) army opened fire, and drones started shooting. We ran away and got nothing,” he said.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, the dead and wounded were rushed to a hospital in an open-top trailer after aid seekers said they were fired on by Israeli forces in Rafah.

“The targeting was deliberate, aimed at people as they were leaving,” eyewitness Aboud al-Adwi told AFP.

“There was no one among us who was wanted or posed any threat. We were all civilians, simply trying to get food for our children,” he added.

AFP footage from Nasser Hospital showed the wounded being treated on a blood-stained floor.

The Israeli military did not immediately provide comment when asked by AFP about the civil defence reports.

‘No longer any benefit’

Netanyahu had said on Sunday that Israel’s “victory” over Iran had created “opportunities”, including for freeing hostages.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, called for an end to the fighting in the territory on Monday, saying there was “no longer any benefit” to the war.

“We now face the completion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve its objectives -- foremost among them, the release of all hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said during a meeting with Netanyahu and the army’s general staff.

Trump had said on Friday that he was hoping for a new ceasefire in Gaza “within the next week”. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is in Washington this week for talks with US officials.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told journalists on Monday that “momentum” had been created by the Iran-Israel ceasefire on 24 June, but that “we won’t hold our breath for this to happen today and tomorrow”.

Israel launched its campaign in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.​

 

[Saif]

ttps://www.newagebd.net/post/north-america/268804/trump-hopes-for-gaza-ceasefire-sometime-next-week

Trump hopes for Gaza ceasefire ‘sometime next week’
Agence France-Presse . Washington 02 July, 2025, 00:16

The United States is pushing for a truce in Gaza by ‘sometime next week,’ US president Donald Trump said Tuesday.

The Republican leader was asked by reporters if a ceasefire in the devastating war between Israel and Palestinians could be in place before a visit by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, set for July 7.

‘We hope it’s going to happen, and we’re looking for it to happen sometime next week,’ Trump responded as he departed Washington for Florida.

The swift resolution of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran has revived hopes for a halt to the fighting in Gaza, where more than 20 months of combat have created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million.

Trump has previously urged Israel to ‘make the deal in Gaza,’ but on the ground, Israel has continued to pursue its offensive across the Palestinian territory.

Israel’s military said Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling.

Israel’s campaign to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas has continued unabated, however, with Gaza’s civil defence agency reporting Israeli forces killed 17 people on Tuesday.

In response to reports of deadly strikes in the north and south of the territory, the Israeli army said it was ‘operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities’.

Separately, it said Tuesday morning that in recent days it had ‘expanded its operations to additional areas within the Gaza Strip, eliminating dozens of terrorists, and dismantling hundreds of terror infrastructure sites both above and below ground’.

Raafat Halles, 39, from the Shujaiya district of Gaza City district, said ‘air strikes and shelling have intensified over the past week’, and tanks have been advancing.

‘I believe that every time negotiations or a potential ceasefire are mentioned, the army escalates crimes and massacres on the ground,’ he said. ‘I don’t know why.’

Amer Daloul, a 44-year-old resident of Gaza City, also reported fiercer clashes between Israeli forces and militants in recent days, telling AFP that he and his family were forced to flee the tent they were living in at dawn on Tuesday ‘due to heavy and random gunfire and shelling’.

In the southern city of Rafah, resident Mohammed Abdel Aal, 41, said ‘tanks are present’ in most parts of town.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that eight people were killed near aid distribution sites in central and southern Gaza Tuesday, in the latest in a long-running spate of deadly attacks on those seeking food.

One person was killed and 50 wounded when tanks and drones opened fire as crowds were waiting to collect aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the middle of the territory, Bassal said.

The civil defence said another six people were killed nearby while trying to reach the same aid centre.

Asked for comment, the Israeli military said its forces ‘fired warning shots to distance suspects who approached the troops’, adding it was not aware of any injuries but would review the incident.

At least one more person was killed near another aid centre in Rafah, the civil defence said.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.

A group of 169 aid organisations called Monday for an end to Gaza’s ‘deadly’ new US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme, which they said forced starving civilians to ‘trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race’ for food.

They urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed until March, when Israel imposed a full blockade on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza during an impasse in truce talks with Hamas.

The new scheme’s administrator, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has distanced itself from reports of aid seekers being killed near its centres.

The Israeli army said it had also opened a review into a strike on a seafront Gaza cafe on Monday that it said had targeted militants.

The civil defence agency reported that the attack killed 24 people.

Maher Al-Baqa, 40, the brother of the owner of the cafe, said that several of his relatives including two nephews were killed in the strike.

‘It’s one of the most well-known cafes on the Gaza coast, frequented by educated youth, journalists, artists, doctors, engineers and hardworking people,’ he said.

‘They used to feel free and safe there — it was like a second home to them.’

The military maintained it had taken steps ‘to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance’.

Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group is ‘ready to agree to any proposal if it will lead to an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces’.

‘So far, there has been no breakthrough.’​

 

[Saif]

Gaza’s hunger games

ISRAEL’S weaponization of starvation is how genocides always end. I covered the insidious effects of orchestrated starvation in the Guatemalan Highlands during the genocidal campaign of General Efraín Ríos Montt, the famine in southern Sudan that left a quarter of a million dead — I walked past...

www.newagebd.net

Gaza’s hunger games
Chris Hedges 02 July, 2025, 00:00

ISRAEL’S weaponization of starvation is how genocides always end. I covered the insidious effects of orchestrated starvation in the Guatemalan Highlands during the genocidal campaign of General Efraín Ríos Montt, the famine in southern Sudan that left a quarter of a million dead — I walked past the frail and skeletal corpses of families lining roadsides — and later during the war in Bosnia when Serbs cut off food supplies to enclaves such as Srebrencia and Goražde.

Starvation was weaponized by the Ottoman Empire to decimate the Armenians. It was used to kill millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor in 1932 and 1933. It was employed by the Nazis against the Jews in the ghettos in World War II. German soldiers used food, as Israel does, like bait. They offered three kilograms of bread and one kilogram of marmalade to lure desperate families in the Warsaw Ghetto onto transports to the death camps. ‘There were times when hundreds of people had to wait in line for several days to be “deported”,’ Marek Edelman writes in ‘The Ghetto Fights.’ ‘The number of people anxious to obtain the three kilograms of bread was such that the transports, now leaving twice daily with 12,000 people, could not accommodate them all.’ And when crowds became unruly, as in Gaza, the German troops fired deadly volleys that ripped through emaciated husks of women, children and the elderly.

This tactic is as old as warfare itself.

The report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, that Israeli soldiers are ordered to shoot into crowds of Palestinians at aid hubs, with 580 killed and 4,216 wounded, is not a surprise. It is the predictable denouement of the genocide, the inevitable conclusion to a campaign of mass extermination.

Israel, with its targeted assassinations of at least 1,400 healthcare workers, hundreds of United Nations workers, journalists, police and even poets and academics, its obliteration of multi-story apartment blocks wiping out dozens of families, its shelling of designated ‘humanitarian zones’ where Palestinians huddle under tents, tarps or in the open air, its systematic targeting of UN food distribution centres, bakeries and aid convoys or its sadistic sniper fire that guns down children, long ago illustrated that Palestinians are regarded as vermin worthy only of annihilation.

The blockade of food and humanitarian aid, imposed on Gaza since March 2, is reducing Palestinians to abject dependence. To eat, they must crawl towards their killers and beg. Humiliated, terrified, desperate for a few scraps of food, they are stripped of dignity, autonomy and agency. This is by intent.

Yousef al-Ajouri, 40, explained to Middle East Eye his nightmarish journey to one of four aid hubs set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The hubs are not designed to meet the needs of the Palestinians, who once relied on 400 aid distribution sites, but to lure them from northern Gaza to the south. Israel, which on Sunday again ordered Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, is steadily expanding its annexation of the coastal strip. Palestinians are corralled like livestock into narrow metal chutes at distribution points which are overseen by heavily armed mercenaries. They receive, if they are one of the fortunate few, a small box of food.

Al-Ajouri, who before the genocide was a taxi driver, lives with his wife, seven children and his mother and father in a tent in al-Saraya, near the middle of Gaza City. He set out to an aid hub at Salah al-Din Road near the Netzarim corridor, to find some food for his children, who he said cry constantly ‘because of how hungry they are.’ On the advice of his neighbour in the tent next to him, he dressed in loose clothing ‘so that I could run and be agile.’ He carried a bag for canned and packaged goods because the crush of the crowds meant ‘no one was able to carry the boxes the aid came in.’

He left at about 9pm with five other men ‘including an engineer and a teacher,’ and ‘children aged 10 and 12.’ They did not take the official route designated by the Israeli army. The massive crowds converging on the aid point along the official route ensure that most never get close enough to receive food. Instead, they walked in the darkness in areas exposed to Israeli gunfire, often having to crawl to avoid being seen.

‘As I crawled, I looked over, and to my surprise, saw several women and elderly people taking the same treacherous route as us,’ he explained. ‘At one point, there was a barrage of live gunfire all around me. We hid behind a destroyed building. Anyone who moved or made a noticeable motion was immediately shot by snipers. Next to me was a tall, light-haired young man using the flashlight on his phone to guide him. The others yelled at him to turn it off. Seconds later, he was shot. He collapsed to the ground and lay there bleeding, but no one could help or move him. He died within minutes.’

He passed six bodies along the route who had been shot dead by Israeli soldiers.

Al-Ajouri reached the hub at 2am, the designated time for aid distribution. He saw a green light turned on ahead of him which signalled that aid was about to be distributed. Thousands began to run towards the light, pushing, shoving and trampling each other. He fought his way through the crowd until he reached the aid.

‘I started feeling around for the aid boxes and grabbed a bag that felt like rice,’ he said. ‘But just as I did, someone else snatched it from my hands. I tried to hold on, but he threatened to stab me with his knife. Most people there were carrying knives, either to defend themselves or to steal from others. Eventually, I managed to grab four cans of beans, a kilogram of bulgur, and half a kilogram of pasta. Within moments, the boxes were empty. Most of the people there, including women, children and the elderly, got nothing. Some begged others to share. But no one could afford to give up what they managed to get.’

The US contractors and Israeli soldiers overseeing the mayhem laughed and pointed their weapons at the crowd. Some filmed with their phones.

‘Minutes later, red smoke grenades were thrown into the air,’ he remembered. ‘Someone told me that it was the signal to evacuate the area. After that, heavy gunfire began. Me, Khalil and a few others headed to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat because our friend Wael had injured his hand during the journey. I was shocked by what I saw at the hospital. There were at least 35 martyrs lying dead on the ground in one of the rooms. A doctor told me they had all been brought in that same day. They were each shot in the head or chest while queuing near the aid centre. Their families were waiting for them to come home with food and ingredients. Now, they were corpses.’

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a Mossad-funded creation of Israel’s defence ministry that contracts with UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions, run by former members of the CIA and US Special Forces. GHF is headed by Rev Johnnie Moore, a far-right Christian Zionist with close ties to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. The organisation has also contracted anti-Hamas drug-smuggling gangs to provide security at aid sites.

As Chris Gunness, a former spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) told Al Jazeera, GHF is ‘aid washing,’ a way to mask the reality that ‘people are being starved into submission.’

Israel, along with the US and European countries that provide weapons to sustain the genocide, have chosen to disregard the January 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice which demanded immediate protection for civilians in Gaza and widespread provision of humanitarian assistance.

Haaretz, in its article headlined ‘It’s a Killing Field’: IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid’ reported that Israeli commanders order soldiers to open fire on crowds to keep them away from aid sites or disperse them.

‘The distribution centres typically open for just one hour each morning,’ Haaretz writes. ‘According to officers and soldiers who served in their areas, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centres close, to disperse them. Since some of the shooting incidents occurred at night — ahead of the opening — it’s possible that some civilians couldn’t see the boundaries of the designated area.’

‘It’s a killing field,’ one soldier told Haaretz. ‘Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force — no crowd-control measures, no tear gas — just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the centre opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.’

‘We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred metres away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces,’ the soldier explained, ‘I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons.’

He said the deployment at the aid sites is known as ‘Operation Salted Fish,’ a reference to the Israeli name for the children’s game ‘Red light, green light.’ The game was featured in the first episode of the South Korean dystopian thriller Squid Game, in which financially desperate people are killed as they battle each other for money.

Israel has obliterated the civilian and humanitarian infrastructure in Gaza. It has reduced Palestinians, half a million of whom face starvation, into desperate herds. The goal is to break Palestinians, to make them malleable and entice them to leave Gaza, never to return.

There is talk from the Trump White House about a ceasefire. But don’t be fooled. Israel has nothing left to destroy. Its saturation bombing over 20 months has reduced Gaza to a moonscape. Gaza is uninhabitable, a toxic wilderness where Palestinians, living amid broken slabs of concrete and pools of raw sewage, lack food and clean water, fuel, shelter, electricity, medicine and an infrastructure to survive. The final impediment to the annexation of Gaza are the Palestinians themselves. They are the primary target. Starvation is the weapon of choice.

ScheerPost.com, June 30. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas says it is studying ceasefire proposal labelled 'final' by Trump

Hamas said on Wednesday it was studying what US President Donald Trump called a "final" ceasefire proposal for Gaza but that Israel must pull out of the enclave, while Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas would be eliminated. Trump had said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the conditio

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Hamas says it is studying ceasefire proposal labelled 'final' by Trump

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 02, 2025 23:17
Updated :
Jul 02, 2025 23:17


Hamas said on Wednesday it was studying what US President Donald Trump called a "final" ceasefire proposal for Gaza but that Israel must pull out of the enclave, while Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas would be eliminated.

Trump had said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas after what he described as a "long and productive" meeting between his representatives and Israeli officials.

In a statement, Hamas said it was studying new ceasefire offers it received from the mediators Egypt and Qatar but stressed it aimed to reach an agreement that would ensure an end to the war and an Israeli pullout from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the elimination of Hamas in his first public remarks since Trump's announcement.

"There will not be a Hamas. There will not be a Hamastan. We're not going back to that. It's over," Netanyahu told a meeting hosted by the Trans-Israel pipeline.

The statements from the two sides reiterated long-held positions, giving no clues as to whether or how a compromise agreement could be reached. Trump's announcement had raised some hope among Gazans for at least a temporary relief from war.

"I hope it would work this time, even if for two months, it would save thousands of innocent lives," Kamal, a resident of Gaza City, said by phone.

Others questioned whether Trump's statements would deliver long-term peace, saying it was not the first time he had said a peace deal was close.

"We hope he is serious like he was serious during the Israeli-Iranian war when he said the war should stop, and it stopped," said Adnan Al-Assar, a resident of Khan Younis in Gaza's south.

There is growing public pressure on Netanyahu to reach a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-long war, a move strongly opposed by hardline members of his right-wing ruling coalition.

At the same time, US and Israeli strikes on nuclear sites in Iran and a recently agreed ceasefire in last month's 12-day conflict have put pressure on Hamas, which is backed by Tehran.

Israeli leaders also believe that, with Iran weakened, other countries in the region have an opportunity to forge ties with Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said a majority within the coalition government would back an agreement that would see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza.

"If there is an opportunity to do so - we must not miss it!", he wrote on X. Of 50 hostages still held, around 20 are believed to be still alive.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid posted that his party could provide a safety net if hardline members of the cabinet opposed a deal, effectively pledging not to back a no-confidence motion in parliament that could topple the government.

COMPLETE END?

For Gazans, who have fled multiple times and face daily struggles to find food 21 months into Israel's military campaign, there was a glimmer of optimism but many worried that any ceasefire would only be temporary.

"We want a complete end to the war on Gaza, not like every time - a partial agreement and ceasefire that lasts a month or two, then the war returns," said Samir Al-Masri in Khan Younis.

At the end of May, Hamas had said it was seeking amendments to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, which Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said was "totally unacceptable."

That proposal had involved a 60-day ceasefire and the release of half the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians; Hamas would release the remaining hostages as part of a deal that guarantees the end of the war.

"Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War," Trump posted on Tuesday, without specifying the conditions.

A source close to Hamas said its leaders were expected to debate the proposal and seek clarifications from mediators before giving an official response.

Gaza health authorities said Israeli gunfire and military strikes killed at least 139 Palestinians in northern and southern areas in the past 24 hours, and the Israeli military ordered more evacuations late on Tuesday.

Among those killed was Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, in an airstrike that has also killed his wife and five children, medics say.

The Israeli military said in response to questions on the air strike that it had targeted a "key terrorist" from Hamas, without giving a name, in the Gaza City area. It added that it was reviewing reports of civilian casualties and said that the military regretted any harm to "uninvolved individuals", and takes steps to minimize such harm.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack that led to Israel's single deadliest day.

Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the whole 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.

More than 80 per cent of the territory is now an Israeli-militarized zone or under displacement orders, according to the UN.​

 

[Saif]

Trump’s ceasefire statement raises hopes in Gaza as Israel presses on with attacks

Word from US President Donald Trump that Israel has agreed to the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza raised hopes on Wednesday in the enclave, where health officials said at least 20 people had been killed in Israeli attacks. A “final” proposal would be delivered

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Trump’s ceasefire statement raises hopes in Gaza as Israel presses on with attacks

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 02, 2025 16:31
Updated :
Jul 02, 2025 16:33

Word from US President Donald Trump that Israel has agreed to the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza raised hopes on Wednesday in the enclave, where health officials said at least 20 people had been killed in Israeli attacks.

A “final” proposal would be delivered by the mediators, Qatar and Egypt, to Hamas, Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday, after what he described as a “long and productive” meeting between his representatives and Israeli officials.

Gazans said even a temporary pause would bring relief.

“I hope it would work this time, even if for two months, it would save thousands of innocent lives,” Kamal, a resident of Gaza City, said by phone.

There is growing public pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-long war, a move strongly opposed by hardline members of his right-wing ruling coalition.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X on Wednesday that a majority within the coalition government would back an agreement that would see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza.

“If there is an opportunity to do so - we must not miss it!”, he wrote on X. Of 50 hostages still held, around 20 are believed to be still alive.

For Gazans, who have fled multiple times and face daily struggles to find food 21 months into Israel’s military campaign, the statements provided a glimmer of hope.

“Everyone is hopeful that it would work this time, there is no room for more failures, every day more costs us our lives,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a businessman.

“We are living the most difficult days. People want an end to the war, an end to the starvation and humiliation.”

There was no immediate official comment by either Israel or Hamas to Trump’s latest statement on the progress of the plan.

“Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War,” Trump’s statement said, without specifying the conditions.

IRAN LINK

The US president appeared to be seeking to use any momentum from US and Israeli strikes on nuclear sites in Iran and a recently agreed ceasefire in that conflict to put pressure on Hamas, which is backed by Tehran. Israeli leaders also believe that, with Iran weakened by last month’s 12-day war, other countries in the region have an opportunity to forge ties with Israel.

A Hamas official declined immediate comment on Trump’s statement. A source close to the group said leaders of the Islamist faction were expected to debate the proposal and seek clarifications from mediators before giving an official response.

At the end of May, Hamas had said it was seeking amendments to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, which Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said was “totally unacceptable.”

That proposal had involved a 60-day ceasefire and the release of half the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians; Hamas would release the remaining hostages as part of a deal that guarantees the end of the war.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X on Wednesday that his party could provide the government with a safety net if hardline members of the Israeli cabinet opposed a deal, effectively pledging not to back a no-confidence motion in parliament that could topple the government.

Gaza health authorities said Israeli gunfire and military strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians in separate attacks in north and southern areas, and the Israeli military ordered more evacuations late on Tuesday.

In response to questions from Reuters about the reports, the Israeli military stated that its operations aimed to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities and mitigate civilian harm, without commenting on specific incidents.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack that led to Israel’s single deadliest day.

Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the whole 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.

More than 80 per cent of the territory is now an Israeli-militarized zone or under displacement orders, according to the UN.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas seeks ceasefire guarantees as scores more are killed in Gaza

Hamas is seeking guarantees that a new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza would lead to the war's end, a source close to the militant group said on Thursday, as medics said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed scores more people. Israeli officials said prospects for reaching a ceasefire dea

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Hamas seeks ceasefire guarantees as scores more are killed in Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 03, 2025 18:35
Updated :
Jul 03, 2025 18:35


Hamas is seeking guarantees that a new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza would lead to the war's end, a source close to the militant group said on Thursday, as medics said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed scores more people.

Israeli officials said prospects for reaching a ceasefire deal and hostage deal appeared high, nearly 21 months since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

Efforts for a Gaza truce have gathered steam after the U.S. secured a ceasefire to end a 12-day aerial conflict between Israel and Iran, but on the ground in Gaza intensified Israeli strikes continued unabated, killing at least 59 people on Thursday, according to health authorities in the territory.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.

Hamas is seeking clear guarantees that the ceasefire will eventually lead to the war's end, the source close to the group said. Two Israeli officials said that those details were still being worked out.

Ending the war has been the main sticking point in repeated rounds of failed negotiations.

Egyptian security sources said Egyptian and Qatari mediators were working to secure U.S. and international guarantees that talks on ending the war would continue as a way of convincing Hamas to accept the two-month truce proposal.

A separate source familiar with the matter said that Israel was expecting Hamas' response by Friday and that if it was positive, an Israeli delegation would join indirect talks to cement the deal.

The proposal includes the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the return of the bodies of 18 more in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, sources say. Of the 50 remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 are believed to still be alive.

A senior Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said preparations were in place to approve a ceasefire deal even as the premier heads to Washington to meet Trump on Monday.

'READINESS TO ADVANCE'

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who sits on Netanyahu's security cabinet, told news website Ynet that there was "definitely readiness to advance a deal."

In Gaza, however, there was little sign of relief. At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a school in Gaza City where displaced families were sheltering, according to medics.

"Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning. We don’t know what happened," one witness, Wafaa Al-Arqan, told Reuters. "What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?"

According to medics at Nasser hospital farther south, at least 20 people were killed by Israeli fire en route to an aid distribution site.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces were taking precautions to mitigate harm to civilians as it battled Palestinian militants throughout Gaza.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, while displacing most of the population of more than 2 million, triggering widespread hunger and leaving much of the territory in ruins.

Israel says it won't end the war while Hamas is still armed and ruling Gaza. Hamas, severely weakened, says it won't lay down its weapons but is willing to release all the hostages still in Gaza if Israel ends the war.​

 

[Saif]

Palestinians say director of key Gaza hospital killed in Israel strike

Palestinian officials and witnesses said on Wednesday that an Israeli strike killed the director of the Indonesian Hospital, a key clinic in the north of war-ravaged Gaza.

en.prothomalo.com

Palestinians say director of key Gaza hospital killed in Israel strike
AFP Gaza City
Published: 03 Jul 2025, 12: 29

Palestinian officials and witnesses said on Wednesday that an Israeli strike killed the director of the Indonesian Hospital, a key clinic in the north of war-ravaged Gaza.

Physician Marwan Al-Sultan was killed in his apartment in Gaza City along with his wife, daughters and son-in-law, a relative who said he found them, Ahmed al-Sultan, told AFP.

Gaza's civil defence agency said seven people were killed in the strike early Wednesday afternoon, including Sultan, his wife and at least three of his children.

The physician's body was taken to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where mourners gathered around it, AFP journalists reported.

"His face was unrecognisable, we could barely identify him," the director of that facility, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, told AFP.

Surviving daughter Lubna Sultan paid tribute too her father at the hospital.

"His whole life was devoted to medicine and the struggle to treat patients," she told AFP.

"There is no justification for targeting him and his martyrdom."

The killing drew condemnation from Hamas and the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, where Israeli forces are battling to crush the Palestinian militant group.

"We strongly condemn this heinous crime against our medical personnel, and we ask Allah to grant him and his family mercy, after a long journey of service," the ministry said.

The Israeli army told AFP: "The claim that as a result of the strike uninvolved civilians were harmed is being reviewed."

It said it "struck a key terrorist from the Hamas terrorist organization in the area of Gaza City" on Wednesday.

The Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, the group that runs the hospital, called the killing of the physician and his family "a flagrant violation of humanitarian principles and a grave act of injustice", saying those responsible "must be held accountable".

An Israeli military operation targeted the Indonesian Hospital in mid-May, when the Gaza health ministry said the facility's electricity generators were deliberately destroyed.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 47 in Gaza, Netanyahu vows to crush Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday vowed to eradicate Hamas, even as the Palestinian militant group said it was discussing new proposals from mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Israeli leader had yet to comment on US President Donald Trump’s claim that Israel had backed...

en.prothomalo.com

Israeli strikes kill 47 in Gaza, Netanyahu vows to crush Hamas

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,012 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

AFP Gaza City, Palestinian Territories
Updated: 03 Jul 2025, 09: 13

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday vowed to eradicate Hamas, even as the Palestinian militant group said it was discussing new proposals from mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli leader had yet to comment on US President Donald Trump’s claim that Israel had backed a plan for a 60-day truce in its offensive against Hamas in the war-ravaged territory.

But a week ahead of talks scheduled with Trump in Washington, he vowed to “destroy” Hamas “down to their very foundation”.

Hamas said it was “conducting national consultations to discuss” the proposals submitted in negotiations mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.

The civil defence agency said that Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people on Wednesday.

Among the dead was Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, a key clinic in the north of Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

Trump on Tuesday urged Hamas to accept a 60-day ceasefire, saying that Israel had agreed to finalise such a deal.

Hamas said in a statement that it was studying the latest proposals and aiming “to reach an agreement that guarantees ending the aggression, achieving the withdrawal (of Israeli forces from Gaza) and urgently aiding our people in the Gaza Strip”.

Netanyahu vowed however: “We will free all our hostages, and we will eliminate Hamas. It will be no more,” in filmed comments in the city of Ashkelon near Gaza’s northern border.

Hostage release drive

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier said that he saw “some positive signs”, amid high pressure to bring home the hostages.

“We are serious in our will to reach a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” he said. “Our goal is to begin proximity talks as soon as possible.”

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

A Palestinian source familiar with the mediated negotiations told AFP that “there are no fundamental changes in the new proposal” under discussion compared to previous terms presented by the United States.

The source said that the new proposal “includes a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.

Israeli air strikes

In southern Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five members of the same family were killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday that hit a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area.

Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel in December 2023, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.

AFP footage from the area showed makeshift tents blown apart as Palestinians picked through the wreckage trying to salvage what was left of their belongings.

“They came here thinking it was a safe area and they were killed. What did they do?” said one resident, Maha Abu Rizq, against a backdrop of destruction.

AFP footage from nearby Khan Yunis city showed infants covered in blood being rushed into Nasser Hospital. One man carrying a child whose face was smeared with blood screamed: “Children, children!”

Among other fatalities, Bassal later reported five people killed by Israeli army fire near an aid distribution site close to the southern city of Rafah and a further death following Israeli fire near an aid site in the centre of the territory.

They were the latest in a string of deadly incidents that have hit people trying to receive food.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.

Evacuation order

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it “is operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” in line with “international law, and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.

It said in a statement that a 19-year-old sergeant in its forces “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip”.

The military late on Wednesday issued a fresh evacuation warning to residents for three neighbourhoods of Gaza City, urging them to flee south to the Mawasi area.

Israeli forces are “operating with extreme intensity in the area and will attack any location being used to launch missiles towards the State of Israel”, Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a message on Telegram.

“The destruction of terrorist organisations will continue and expand into the city centre, encompassing all neighbourhoods of the city,” Avichay wrote.

The military earlier said that its air force had intercepted two “projectiles” that crossed from northern Gaza into Israeli territory.

Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,012 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.​

 

[Sharma Ji]

hows the lungee peace brokering going ?