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

[Saif]

Activist aid ship hit by drones on way to Gaza, NGO says

A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists for Gaza was bombed by drones in international waters off Malta early on Friday, its organisers said, alleging that Israel was to blame. The Israeli foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation by the Freedom

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Activist aid ship hit by drones on way to Gaza, NGO says
REUTERS
Published :
May 02, 2025 20:49
Updated :
May 02, 2025 20:49

A tug vessel puts out a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this handout picture provided by Malta Goverment Department of Information, May 2, 2025. Photo : Goverment of Malta/Handout via REUTERS

A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists for Gaza was bombed by drones in international waters off Malta early on Friday, its organisers said, alleging that Israel was to blame.

The Israeli foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international non-governmental group.

The Maltese government said the vessel and its crew were secured in the early hours of the morning after a nearby tug assisted with firefighting operations, but the NGO and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said the ship was still in danger.

Thunberg told Reuters she was in Malta and had been supposed to board the ship as part of the Freedom Flotilla's planned action in support of Gaza, which is under blockade and bombardment by Israel.

The NGO published video footage, filmed in darkness, showing a fire on one of its ships, the Conscience. The footage showed lights in the sky in front of the ship and the sound of explosions could be heard.

"Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters," it said.

The Maltese government said maritime authorities had received a mayday call shortly after midnight local time from a vessel outside of territorial waters, with 12 crew members and four civilians on board, reporting a fire.

It said a nearby tug headed to the scene and launched firefighting operations and a Maltese patrol vessel was dispatched. After several hours, the vessel and its crew were secure, it said, adding that crew had refused to board the tug.

'BREAK THE BLOCKADE'

But the Freedom Flotilla said in a statement on its website that the alleged drone strikes had caused "a substantial breach in the hull".

"The drone strike appears to have deliberately targeted the ship's generator, leaving the crew without power and placing the vessel at great risk of sinking," it said.

A spokeswoman for the group, Caoimhe Butterly, said the attack took place as the ship was preparing for activists to board from another vessel. A transfer at sea had been planned rather than the ship going to harbour, for bureaucratic reasons, she said.

Thunberg said that as far as she knew, the vessel was still at the location where it had been attacked and still in imminent danger.

"This attack caused an explosion and major damage to the vessel, which made it impossible to continue the mission," she said in a Zoom interview.

"I was part of the group who was supposed to board that boat today to continue the voyage towards Gaza, which is one of many attempts to open up a humanitarian corridor and to do our part to keep trying to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza," she said.

Thunberg and the NGO said there were 30 people on board, not 16 as the Maltese government said.

The coalition said it had been organising a non-violent action under a media blackout in order to avoid any potential sabotage.

The Gaza war started after Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza in the October 7, 2023 attacks, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's offensive on the enclave killed more than 52,000, according to Palestinian health officials.

Since March 2, Israel has completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the enclave, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.

Another coalition ship on a similar mission to Gaza in 2010 was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops, and nine activists died. Other ships have similarly been stopped and boarded, without loss of life.

Hamas issued a statement about the incident off Malta, accusing Israel of "piracy" and "state terrorism".​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 29 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 29 people Friday in the Palestinian territory, devastated by war and under a total Israeli aid blockade for two months.

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Israeli strikes kill 29 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 03 May, 2025, 01:26

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 29 people Friday in the Palestinian territory, devastated by war and under a total Israeli aid blockade for two months.

Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18 after the collapse of a ceasefire that had largely halted the fighting.

Nine people were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a home in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said.

Another six people were killed in a separate strike targeting the Al-Masri family home in the northern city of Beit Lahia, he added.

In Gaza City, a strike on a community kitchen claimed the lives of six more, the civil defence agency reported.

Elsewhere across the Gaza Strip, at least eight additional fatalities were reported in similar attacks, the agency said.

Since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, at least 2,326 people have been killed, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The war erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel says its renewed military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.

Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of the ceasefire which had come into effect on January 19.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.

On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the ‘verge of total collapse’.

‘This situation must not — and cannot — be allowed to escalate further,’ Pascal Hundt, ICRC deputy director of Operations said in a statement.

Meanwhile, A group of activists organising an aid boat for Gaza said it was attacked on Friday by drones in international waters off Malta as they headed towards the Palestinian territory, accusing Israel of attacking the vessel.

The Maltese government said it responded to a distress call from the vessel and offered immediate support.

It said all crew members were safe, while making no mention of an alleged attack.

‘At 00:23 Maltese time (2223 GMT on Thursday), the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,’ the activist group said in a statement.

‘Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull,’ it added, blaming Israel.

‘Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the on-going blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.’

The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.

The strike, the activists said, appeared to target the boat’s generator.

Following the distress call, the Malta Vessel Traffic Services body dispatched a tugboat and offered support.

‘The tug arrived on scene and began firefighting operations. By 0128 hrs, the fire was reported under control,’ the Maltese statement said.​

 

[Saif]

Flights again halted to Israel after Houthi missile lands near airport

European and U.S. carriers cancelled flights for the next several days after a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday landed near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main international travel gateway. Many foreign airlines subsequently suspended flights to and fr

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Flights again halted to Israel after Houthi missile lands near airport
REUTERS
Published :
May 04, 2025 20:58
Updated :
May 04, 2025 20:58

Israeli police officers investigate a crater at the site of a missile attack, launched from Yemen, near Ben Gurion Airport, in Tel Aviv, Israel May 4, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Nir Elias

European and U.S. carriers cancelled flights for the next several days after a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday landed near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main international travel gateway.

Many foreign airlines subsequently suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv after the missile hit, sending a plume of smoke into the air and causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.

Following a ceasefire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas in January, foreign carriers had begun to resume flights to Israel after halting them for much of the last year and a half since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

That left flag carrier El Al Airlines - along with smaller rivals Arkia and Israir - with a near monopoly. El Al’s shares rose 7%, while Israir gained 4.1% in a flat broader Tel Aviv market on Sunday.

Delta Air Lines said it cancelled Sunday’s flight from JFK in New York to Tel Aviv and the return flight from Tel Aviv on Monday. United cancelled its twice daily flights between Tel Aviv and Newark while it monitors the situation.

Earlier, flights from Tel Aviv on Delta and United on Sunday morning departed about 90 minutes late.

Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian, said it had halted flights to and from Tel Aviv through Tuesday due to the current situation.

ITA said it had cancelled flights from Italy to Israel through Wednesday, while Air France cancelled flights on Sunday, saying customers were transferred to flights on Monday. TUS flights to and from Cyprus were cancelled through Monday, while Air India flights from New Delhi were halted on Sunday.

Ryanair suspended flights on Sunday but flights are still scheduled for Monday, according to the Israel Airports Authority. Wizz also halted flights.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be very difficult to go back to France because all European carriers, from what I see on the information (board), have cancelled. Lufthansa have cancelled, Swiss have cancelled, Brussels (Airlines), so no connection is possible,” said Michael Sceemes, 56, whose Air France flight was cancelled.

Aegean, flydubai and Ethiopian did not cancel flights.

El Al said it would reintroduce rescue flights to Israel from Larnaca and Athens for passengers stranded by foreign carriers at a cost of $99 and $149, respectively.

Udi Bar Oz, head of Ben Gurion Airport, said the airport was up and running less than 30 minutes after the missile hit a road nearby.

Claiming responsibility for the strike, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said Israel’s main airport was “no longer safe for air travel”.

The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, began targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping in late 2023, during the early days of the war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to respond to the Houthis. “We attacked in the past, we will attack in the future ... There will be more blows,” he said.​

 

[Saif]

Humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘beyond imagination’: UN agency

“The humanitarian situation throughout the Gaza Strip is beyond imagination,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Sunday. The UN agency said on social media platform X that “as the complete blocking of supplies essential fo

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Humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘beyond imagination’: UN agency
Published :
May 04, 2025 21:06
Updated :
May 04, 2025 21:06

“The humanitarian situation throughout the Gaza Strip is beyond imagination,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Sunday.

The UN agency said on social media platform X that “as the complete blocking of supplies essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be a concerted international effort to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level,” reiterating its call for an urgent ceasefire, reports UNB.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run media office warned of an imminent humanitarian disaster in Gaza due to the continued closure of the crossings and a stifling blockade lasting more than 60 days.

The office said in a press statement that “the Israeli occupation continues to prevent the entry of baby formula, nutritional supplements, and all forms of humanitarian aid, leaving more than 70,000 children hospitalized due to severe malnutrition.”

It added that more than 3,500 children under the age of five are at imminent risk of death from starvation.

The statement called on the international community to take urgent and immediate action to reopen crossings and allow the entry of baby formula and nutritional supplements into Gaza.

Israel halted the flow of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2 following the expiration of the first phase of a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas. The second phase has yet to be implemented due to a lack of consensus between the parties.​

 

[Saif]

Israel may seize all Gaza in expanded operation, officials say

Israel may seize the Gaza Strip and control aid in an expanded offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas that was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on Monday, officials said. An Israeli defence official said it would not be launched before US President Donal

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Israel may seize all Gaza in expanded operation, officials say
REUTERS
Published :
May 05, 2025 20:40
Updated :
May 05, 2025 20:40

Israeli tanks are positioned near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, March 18, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Files

Israel may seize the Gaza Strip and control aid in an expanded offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas that was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on Monday, officials said.

An Israeli defence official said it would not be launched before US President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East.

The decision, after weeks of faltering efforts to agree a ceasefire with Hamas, underlines the threat that a war heaping international pressure on Israel amid dwindling public support at home could continue with no end in sight.

A government spokesman told journalists online that reserve soldiers were being called up to expand operations in Gaza, not to occupy it.

A report by Israel's public broadcaster Kan, citing officials with knowledge of the details, said the new plan was gradual and would take months, with forces focusing first on one area of the battered enclave.

Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of the Gaza Strip, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones, but the new plan would go further.

One Israeli government official said the newly approved offensive would seize the entire territory of the Gaza Strip, move its civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas hands.

The defence official said aid distribution, which has been handled by international aid groups and U.N. organizations, would be transferred to private companies and handed out in the southern area of Rafah once the offensive begins.

The Israeli military, which throughout the war has shown little appetite for occupying Gaza, declined to comment on the remarks by government officials and politicians.

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed a blockade of aid into the enclave, drawing warnings from the United Nations and international organizations that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.

The Israeli defence official said that Israel would hold on to security zones seized along the Gaza perimeter because they were vital for protecting Israeli communities around the enclave.

But he said there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during a visit by Trump to the region next week.

"If there is no hostage deal, Operation "Gideon Chariots" will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved," he said.

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi rejected what he called "pressure and blackmail".

"No deal except a comprehensive one, which includes a complete ceasefire, full withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and the release of all prisoners from both sides," he said.

'OCCUPATION'

Israel has yet to present a clear vision for post-war Gaza after a campaign that has displaced most of Gaza's population and left it depending on aid supplies that have been dwindling rapidly since the blockade.

Ministers have said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for the civilian population.

Instead, officials have looked at plans for private contractors to handle distribution, through what the United Nations has described as Israeli hubs.

On Monday, Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on X that Israel was demanding that the UN and non-governmental organisations shut down their aid distribution system in Gaza.

However, the decision to expand the operation was immediately hailed by Israeli government hardliners who have long pressed for a full takeover of the Gaza Strip by Israel and a permanent displacement of the population, along the line of the Riviera plans outlined by Trump in February.

"We are finally going to conquer Gaza. We are no longer afraid of the word 'occupation'," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a pro-settler conference in an online discussion.

However, with Israel facing threats from the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who on Sunday fired a missile that hit close to Ben Gurion Airport, an unstable Syria next door and a volatile situation in the occupied West Bank, the capacity for prolonged military operations faces constraints.

Israel's Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the military has already begun issuing tens of thousands of call-up orders for its reserve forces, looking to expand the Gaza campaign.

Zamir, who took office in March, has pushed back against calls by government hardliners who want to choke off aid entirely and has told ministers aid must be let in soon, according to Kan.

The war was triggered by the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza in the deadliest day for Israel in its history.

Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to local health authorities, and left much of Gaza in ruins.

Up to 24 of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be alive. Families fear that the fighting will endanger their loved ones while critics say Israel risks being drawn into a long guerrilla war with limited gains and no clear strategy.

Successive surveys have shown dwindling public support for the war among Israelis, many of whom prefer to see a ceasefire deal reached and more hostages released.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 19 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said two Israeli air strikes killed at least 19 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory’s north early Monday...

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Israeli strikes kill 19 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 06 May, 2025, 00:06

Palestinians inspect the debris of a Palestinian house, after it was demolished by Israeli forces, in the village of al-Mughayyer, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on May 5, 2025. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said two Israeli air strikes killed at least 19 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory’s north early Monday.

‘Our teams found 15 martyrs and 10 wounded, mostly children and women, after an Israeli strike on three apartments’ northwest of Gaza City, said the agency’s spokesman, Mahmud Bassal.

Four other people were killed and four wounded in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, he said.

The Israeli military has yet to comment on the reported strikes.

It has intensified aerial bombardments and expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip since resuming its offensive in the Palestinian territory on March 18.

Israel blocked the entry of all aid into the besieged territory of about 2.4 million people on March 2.

Israel says the blockade and intensified bombardments aim to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages held in Gaza.

Militants in the territory still hold 58 hostages seized in Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.

The army says 34 of them are dead. Hamas is also holding the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 52,535 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say

Israeli airstrikes on a school housing conflict-displaced families and close to a crowded market and restaurant in Gaza City killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, local health authorities said. Medics said two strikes targeted the Karama School in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, killing 15. Later

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say
REUTERS
Published :
May 07, 2025 20:59
Updated :
May 07, 2025 20:59

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 7, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Israeli airstrikes on a school housing conflict-displaced families and close to a crowded market and restaurant in Gaza City killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, local health authorities said.

Medics said two strikes targeted the Karama School in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, killing 15. Later in the day, an Israeli strike near a restaurant and market in the city killed at least 23 people, including women and children, medics said.

There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Reuters footage of the scene near the market showed wounded men being rushed away on the back of pickups and carts. Ambulances sped down shattered streets and a woman in tears carried a baby away from the scene, with two young children beside her.

"The blood was like a lake, oh my baby, pools of blood," she can be heard screaming.

Ahmed Al-Saoudi said he witnessed the airstrike near the market.

"People come to the market to get what they need if they can find it ... Neither the people nor the animals were safe. Neither the young nor the old," he said.

An image posted on social media showed what appeared to be a family of three - mother, father and son - lying dead on the street in pools of blood. The young boy was carrying a pink backpack. Reuters could not immediately verify the image that was purportedly from the scene near the restaurant.

Two Israeli airstrikes on another school, housing displaced people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, killed at least 33 people, including women and children, on Tuesday, local health authorities said. The Israeli military said it struck "terrorists" operating from a command center in the compound.

The strike smashed classrooms, destroyed furniture and left a large crater in the school campus. On Wednesday, survivors sifted through rubble to look for some of their belongings.

"What happened is an earthquake. The Israeli occupation hit a school housing children. They are children," said eyewitness Ali Al-Shaqra. He said the school housed 300 families.

"Here is the building; it was razed to the ground. We cannot find the gas cylinder, the flour bag we had, the kilo of rice, or the meal we got from the Tukkiyah (community kitchen). Thank God we are left with the clothes we had on," Shaqra added.

In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt, residents and Hamas sources said Israeli forces, who have taken control of the city, continued to blow up and demolish houses and buildings.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said on Wednesday their fighters had detonated a pre-planted minefield targeting an Israeli armoured force east of Khan Younis in the south. They said they inflicted casualties, followed by mortar shelling of the area.

AID HALTED

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the UN that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.

Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.

But an Israeli defence official said on Monday the operation would not be launched before U.S. President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East, and there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit.

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday Hamas would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war.

Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept "desperate attempts before Trump's visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide, and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some (Israeli) prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink."

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run health authorities, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said two local journalists, Nour Abdu and Yehya Sbeih were killed in Wednesday's attacks, raising the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since the war began to 214.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas insists on ‘comprehensive’ deal to end Gaza war

Hamas insisted on Wednesday on a ‘comprehensive’ agreement to end its war with Israel, as rescuers said Israeli bombardment of Gaza killed at least 26 people amid a growing humanitarian catastrophe...

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Hamas insists on ‘comprehensive’ deal to end Gaza war
Israel strikes kill 26
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 08 May, 2025, 00:45

Hamas insisted on Wednesday on a ‘comprehensive’ agreement to end its war with Israel, as rescuers said Israeli bombardment of Gaza killed at least 26 people amid a growing humanitarian catastrophe.

A two-month ceasefire in the war collapsed in March, with Israel resuming intense strikes and imposing a total aid blockade on the Palestinian territory.

Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in Hamas’s unprecedented October 2023 attack and Hamas’s disarmament, which the group has rejected as a ‘red line’.

Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to the war’s end, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a surge in humanitarian aid.

‘Hamas and the resistance factions insist on reaching a comprehensive agreement and a full package to end the war and aggression, along with a roadmap for the day after,’ political bureau member Bassem Naim said Wednesday.

‘There are desperate attempts ahead of US president Donald Trump’s visit to the region to force through a partial deal that would return some Israeli captives in exchange for a limited number of days of food and water — without any guarantees from any party to actually end the war,’ he said.

Trump is due in the Gulf next week for talks with the heads of state of powerful monarchies.

Israel this week drew widespread condemnation over its plans for an expanded Gaza offensive, which an official said would entail the ‘conquest’ of the Palestinian territory.

Before that phase begins, a senior Israeli security source had said that the timing of troop deployments allowed a ‘window of opportunity’ for a possible hostage deal coinciding with Trump’s Middle East trip.

‘We want to try and get as many hostages saved as possible,’ Trump said at the White House, without elaborating.

In Gaza, rescuers said strikes killed 26 people, 15 in a strike on a school.

‘Our teams retrieved 15 martyrs and 10 injured individuals after Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the Al-Karama school, which shelters displaced persons in the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City,’ spokesman Mahmud Basal said.

He had earlier reported a toll of 11 killed in strikes on the territory.

One strike hit a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where eight members of the Al-Qidra family were killed and 12 wounded, Bassal said.

The ages of the dead ranged from two to 54, he added.

AFP footage from Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital showed wounded children crying on hospital beds while bodies covered in blankets arrived in ambulances.

‘They were sleeping and the house collapsed on them,’ said Abir Shehab, adding her brother had been killed.

‘We die of hunger, we die of war, we die of fear, we die of everything, and the whole world stands by and watches us die,’ she said.

Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday at least 2,545 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the war’s overall toll to 52,653.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

On Tuesday, Hamas said it was pointless to continue ceasefire talks with Israel, accusing it of waging a ‘hunger war’ on Gaza.

France’s president Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that the situation in Gaza was ‘the most critical we have ever seen’.

In Madrid, Spain, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway and Slovenia in a joint statement said they ‘firmly reject any demographic or territorial change in Gaza’.

UN rights chief Volker Turk voiced concerns Wednesday that Israel’s plans to expand its offensive aim to create conditions threatening Palestinians’ ‘continued existence’ in Gaza.

‘There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed,’ he said.

‘Instead, expanding the offensive on Gaza will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza’s little remaining infrastructure.’

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa, not affiliated to Hamas, urged the world to put a stop to the ‘deliberate humanitarian crime’ of famine, which he said was being perpetrated in Gaza.

‘We appeal to the conscience of humanity. Do not let the children of Gaza starve to death,’ he said.​