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

[Saif]

Palestinians in Gaza 'deserve more than survival,' says UN envoy

Palestinians living in Gaza "deserve more than survival," the United Nations envoy for the Middle East told the Security Council on Wednesday, as Israel's war there enters its 600th day. Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza, ignited by an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas...

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Palestinians in Gaza 'deserve more than survival,' says UN envoy
AFP United Nations, United States
Published: 28 May 2025, 22: 39

Palestinians attempt to collect water at a camp for displaced people in Gaza City, on 20 May 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas AFP

Palestinians living in Gaza "deserve more than survival," the United Nations envoy for the Middle East told the Security Council on Wednesday, as Israel's war there enters its 600th day.

Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza, ignited by an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on 7 October 2023, earlier this month, while mediators push for a ceasefire that remains elusive.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis after Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza for over two months, before allowing supplies in at a trickle last week.

"Since the resumption of hostilities in Gaza, the already horrific existence of civilians has only sunk further into the abyss. This is manmade," Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Council.

"Death is their companion," she continued. "It's not life, it's not hope. The people of Gaza deserve more than survival. They deserve a future."

The aid that is now coming in "is comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk," she said.

Kaag warned that there could be no "sustainable peace" in the Middle East without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that the West Bank also is on a "dangerous trajectory."

And she called for collective action to revive a two-state solution, saying that a high-level international conference in June presents a "critical opportunity."

"It must launch a concrete path towards ending the occupation and realizing the two-state solution," she said.

When speaking of people in Gaza, "the words empathy, solidarity and support have lost their meaning," Kaag said.

"We should not become accustomed to the number of people killed or injured. These are daughters, mothers, and young children whose lives have been shattered. All have a name, all had a future, all had dreams and aspirations."

'Why didn't I die?'

The UN Security Council also heard the harrowing testimony of an American surgeon on Wednesday, a few weeks after his return from Gaza.

"I am here because I have witnessed what is happening in Gaza with my own eyes, especially to children, and I cannot pretend not to have seen it. You too, cannot claim ignorance," said Dr Feroze Sidhwa.

The medical system in Gaza has not failed, he said. "It has been systematically dismantled through a sustained military campaign that has willfully violated international humanitarian law."

Children are "supposed to be protected," he said, but "in Gaza, those protections are simply gone."

"Most of my patients were pre-teen children, their bodies shattered by explosions and torn by flying metal. Many died. Those who lived often awoke to find their entire families gone," he said.

"According to the War Child Alliance, nearly half of Gaza's children are suicidal," he said.

"They ask, why didn't I die with my sister, my mother, my father? Not out of extremism, but out of unbearable grief. I wonder if any member of this Council has ever met a five-year-old child who no longer wants to live."
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, blamed Hamas for the situation in Gaza.

"There is suffering in Gaza, but the blame is on the shoulders of Hamas ... so they will continue to be suffering until Hamas will understand that they will not stay in Gaza," he told reporters.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu says Israel accepts Witkoff's new Gaza truce proposal, media report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel has accepted a new ceasefire proposal presented by US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli media reported on Thursday. Palestinian militant group Hamas said earlier that it had rec

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Netanyahu says Israel accepts Witkoff's new Gaza truce proposal, media report

REUTERS
Published :
May 29, 2025 21:36
Updated :
May 29, 2025 21:37

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/ Files

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel has accepted a new ceasefire proposal presented by US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

Palestinian militant group Hamas said earlier that it had received the new proposal from mediators and was studying it.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza aid system under pressure as thousands seek food

After a slow and chaotic start to the new US-backed aid system in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have been arriving at distribution points, seeking desperately needed food despite scenes of disorder and fears of violence. The two hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private group

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Gaza aid system under pressure as thousands seek food

REUTERS
Published :
May 29, 2025 20:12
Updated :
May 29, 2025 20:12

Palestinians walk next to a donkey-drawn cart loaded with aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near an area of Gaza known as the Netzarim corridor, May 29, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

After a slow and chaotic start to the new US-backed aid system in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have been arriving at distribution points, seeking desperately needed food despite scenes of disorder and fears of violence.

The two hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private group sponsored by the United States and endorsed by Israel, have been running since Tuesday, but the launch was marred by tumultuous scenes when thousands rushed the fences and forced private contractors providing security to retreat.

An Israeli military official told Reuters that the GHF was now operating four aid distribution sites, three in the Rafah area in the south and one in the Netzarim area in central Gaza.

GHF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether it was now distributing aid in Netzarim.

The new system has been heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as an inadequate and flawed response to the humanitarian crisis left by Israel's 11-week blockade on aid entering Gaza.

Wessam Khader, a 25-year-old father of a three-year-old boy, said he had gone to a site near Rafah, despite widespread suspicions of the new system among Palestinians and warnings from militant group Hamas to stay away.

He said he had gone every day since Tuesday but only obtained a 3 kg (6.6 pounds) package containing flour, canned sardines, salt, noodles, biscuits and jam on the first day.

"I was driven by the hunger, for several weeks we had no flour, we had nothing in the tent," he told Reuters by telephone from Rafah. "My son wakes every day asking for something to eat and I can't give him."

When he arrived with his father and brother, there were thousands there already and no sign of the identification process that Israeli officials had said would be in place to screen out anyone considered to have links to Hamas.

"I didn't see anything, no one asked for me for anything, and if there was an electronic gate or screening I think it collapsed under the feet of the crowds," he said. The gates, the wire fences were all brought down and even plastic pipes, metal boards and fencing material was carried off.

"People were hungry and they took everything at the site," he said.

Earlier this week, GHP said it had anticipated such reactions from a "distressed population".

For Palestinians in northern Gaza, cut off from the distribution points in the south even that remains out of reach.

"We see videos about the aid, and people getting some, but they keep saying no trucks can enter north where we live," said Ghada Zaki, a 52-year-old mother of seven in Gaza City, told Reuters via chat app.

AIR STRIKES

Israel imposed the blockade at the beginning of March, saying supplies were being stolen by Hamas and used to entrench its control over Gaza. Hamas denies stealing aid and says it has protected aid trucks from looters.

Even as thousands made their way to the distribution site, Israeli jets continued to pound areas of Gaza, killing at least 45 people on Thursday, including 23 people in a strike that hit several houses in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said.

The Israeli military said it hit dozens of targets in Gaza overnight, including what it said were weapons storage dumps, sniper positions and tunnels.

Speculation around a possible ceasefire agreement grew after US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said the White House was preparing a draft document that could provide the basis for an agreement.

However, it was unclear what changes to previous proposals were being considered that might overcome the deep differences between Hamas and Israel that have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire deal that broke down in March after only two months.

Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza must come back before it will agree to end the war.

Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must commit to ending the war for a deal to work.

Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that have normally been reluctant to criticise Israel openly demanding an end to the war and a major humanitarian relief effort.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the devastating attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

The campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins, forcing most of its population to move multiple times, Gaza health officials say.​

 

[Saif]

Israel announces creation of 22 settlements in West Bank

Israel announced on Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank

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Israel announces creation of 22 settlements in West Bank

AFP Jerusalem
Published: 29 May 2025, 14: 58

Israeli security forces take cover behind riot shields next to a destroyed car and burning tires during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators following a protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum in the occupied West Bank near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim, on 23 September 2022. AFP

Israel announced on Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, risking further strain on relations with the international community already taxed by the war in Gaza.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law, and are seen as one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The decision to establish more, taken by the country's security cabinet, announced by far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who is in charge of managing the communities.

"We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel," Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli term for the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.

"Next step: sovereignty!" he added.

Katz said the initiative "changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come".

In a statement on Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a "once-in-a-generation decision", saying the initiative had been led by Smotrich and Katz.

"The decision also includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel's eastern backbone, national security and strategic grip on the area," it said.

The party published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory.

'Heritage of our ancestors'

Two of the settlements, Homesh and Sa-Nur are particularly symbolic. Located in the north of the West Bank, they are actually re-settlements, having been evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel's disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then-prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, formed in December 2022 with the support of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, is the most right-wing in Israel's history.

Human rights groups and anti-settlement NGOs say a slide towards at least de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank has gathered pace, particularly since the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.

"The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal," the Peace Now group said in a statement, adding the move "will dramatically reshape the West Bank and further entrench the occupation".

In his announcement, Smotrich offered a preemptive defence of the move, saying: "We have not taken a foreign land, but the heritage of our ancestors."

Some European governments have moved to sanction individual settlers, as did the United States under former president Joe Biden, though those measures were lifted by current President Donald Trump.

Thursday's announcement comes ahead of an international conference to be led by France and Saudi Arabia at UN headquarters in New York next month, which is meant to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Supporters of the blueprint, which was the basis of successive rounds of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, say the prospects for a viable, contiguous Palestinian state alongside Israel are being undermined by the proliferation of settlements.

The announcement also comes after US envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday he had "very good feelings" about the prospects for a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, adding that he expected to send out a new proposal imminently.​

 

[Saif]

44 killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza

At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.

www.newagebd.net

44 killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza
Food warehouse looted
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 30 May, 2025, 01:23

At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.

After a more than two-month blockade, aid has finally begun to trickle back into Gaza, but the humanitarian situation remains dire after 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.

The Israeli military has also recently stepped up its offensive in the territory in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.

Gaza civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir said ‘44 people have been killed in Israeli raids’, including 23 in a strike on home in Al-Bureij.

‘Two people were killed and several injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire this morning near the American aid centre in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip,’ he added.

The centre, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is part of a new system for distributing aid that Israel says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

‘What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us,’ said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday.

‘We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.’

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported deaths in Al-Bureij and near the aid centre.

Separately, it said in a statement that its forces had struck ‘dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip’ over the past day.

In a telephone call Thursday with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said Israel’s ‘systematic starvation tactics have crossed all moral and legal boundaries’.

On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme warehouse in central Gaza, with Israel and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis.

AFP footage showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into the WFP facility in Deir al-Balah and taking bags of emergency food supplies as gunshots rang out.

‘Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution,’ the UN agency said in a statement.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that aid was entering Gaza by truck — under limited authorisation by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing — and accused the UN of ‘trying to block’ GHF’s work through ‘threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate’.

The UN has said it is doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance allowed by Israel’s authorities

The world body said 47 people were wounded Tuesday when crowds of Palestinians rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death.

GHF, however, alleged in a statement that there had been ‘several inaccuracies’ circulating about its operations, adding ‘there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail’.

But 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, who visited a GHF centre Thursday, said the situation there was ‘so chaotic’.

‘The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads, but the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding,’ he said.

Negotiations on a ceasefire, meanwhile, have continued, with US envoy Steve Witkoff expressing optimism and saying he expected to propose a plan soon.

But Gazans remained pessimistic.

‘Six hundred days have passed and nothing has changed. Death continues, and Israeli bombing does not stop,’ said Bassam Daloul, 40.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.​