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

[Saif]

Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s calls war in Gaza a ‘genocide’

The independent board of Ben & Jerry's said the conflict in Gaza is a genocide, escalating a bitter feud between the ice cream maker and its longtime London-based corporate parent, Unilever. "Ben & Jerry's believes in human rights and advocates for peace, and we join with those around the world wh

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Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s calls war in Gaza a ‘genocide’

REUTERS
Published :
May 30, 2025 20:56
Updated :
May 30, 2025 20:56

The independent board of Ben & Jerry's said the conflict in Gaza is a genocide, escalating a bitter feud between the ice cream maker and its longtime London-based corporate parent, Unilever.

"Ben & Jerry's believes in human rights and advocates for peace, and we join with those around the world who denounce the genocide in Gaza," the board said in a statement viewed by Reuters. "We stand with all who raise their voices against genocide in Gaza - from petition-signers to street marchers to those risking arrest."

Unilever and Ben & Jerry's have been at odds since at least 2021 when the Chubby Hubby ice cream maker said it would stop selling in the Israel-occupied West Bank. Ben & Jerry's sued its owner last year over its alleged attempts to silence it on Gaza and criticise US President Donald Trump. Its statement on Gaza is unusual for a major US brand.

A Unilever spokesperson said that the comments reflect the views of the independent social mission board of Ben & Jerry's, and they do not speak for anyone other than themselves.

"We call for peace in the region and for relief for all those whose lives have been impacted," the spokesperson said.

Unilever asked a US judge to dismiss Ben & Jerry's lawsuit. The company is also in the process of separating out its ice cream business, including Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's, to an independent company this summer.

Ben & Jerry's has said its year 2000 merger agreement with Unilever gave its independent board "primary responsibility" to pursue the company's social mission. The crux of the dispute between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever is how much leeway the board actually has.​

 

[Saif]

Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank draws criticism

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

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Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank draws criticism
AFP Jerusalem
Published: 30 May 2025, 14: 09

A Palestinian demonstrator reacts to a sound grenade fired by Israeli forces during a protest against Jewish settlements and Israel's planned annexation of parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in the Palestinian town of Asira ash-Shamaliya, 17 July 2020. Reuters

Israel announced Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing sharp condemnation from Britain, Jordan and others already at odds with the country over its Gaza war.

London called the move a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution “in the wrong direction”.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law and are seen as a major obstacle to lasting peace.

The decision, taken by Israel’s security cabinet, was announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who oversees 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 terms for the southern and northern 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”.

Not all of the 22 settlements are new. Some are existing outposts, while others are neighbourhoods of settlements that will become independent communities, according to the left-wing Israeli NGO Peace Now.

Hamas accused Israel of “accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project”.

“This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions,” Gaza’s Islamist rulers said.

Britain’s minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, said the plan imperils “the two-state solution” and does not protect Israel.

Jordan called the decision illegal and said it “undermines prospects for peace by entrenching the occupation”.

“We stand against any and all” expansion of the settlements, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, repeating calls for Israel to halt such activity, which he said blocks peace and economic development.

On Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a “once-in-a-generation decision” and said it “includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel’s eastern backbone”.

A map posted by the party showed the 22 sites scattered 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 resettlements, having been evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then prime minister Ariel Sharon.

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,” Peace Now said in a statement.

In his announcement, Smotrich offered a pre-emptive 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 under Donald Trump.

The announcement comes ahead of an international conference led by France and Saudi Arabia at the United Nations next month aimed at reviving the two-state solution.​

 

[Saif]

UN warns all of Gaza at risk of famine

The UN warned Friday that the entire population of Gaza was at risk of famine, as an Israeli far-right minister urged the use of ‘full force’ against Hamas.

www.newagebd.net

UN warns all of Gaza at risk of famine
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 31 May, 2025, 00:18

Children collect items as Palestinians check the site of an overnight Israeli strike, in Jabalia in the central Gaza Strip, on Friday, amid the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. | AFP photo

The UN warned Friday that the entire population of Gaza was at risk of famine, as an Israeli far-right minister urged the use of ‘full force’ against Hamas.

Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March following a short-lived truce.

Israel recently intensified its offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, drawing global condemnation over the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Recent AFPTV footage has shown chaotic scenes as large crowds of Palestinians desperate for food rushed to a limited number of aid distribution centres to pick up supplies.

‘Gaza is the hungriest place on earth,’ Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said on Friday.

‘It’s the only defined area — a country or defined territory within a country — where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred per cent of the population at risk of famine.’

Laerke said 900 UN aid trucks had been authorised by Israel to enter so far, but only 600 had been offloaded on the Gaza side of the border, and an even smaller number had been picked up there due to security considerations.

Laerke described the ‘limited number of truckloads’ as ‘drip-feeding food’.

Adding to the international pressure, French president Emmanuel Macron said Friday that European countries should ‘harden the collective position’ against Israel if it did not respond appropriately to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Action was needed ‘in the next few hours and days’, he added.

The White House announced Thursday that Israel had ‘signed off’ on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, but the Palestinian militant group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, while stopping short of rejecting it outright.

Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, addressing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Telegram post Friday, said that ‘after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again — there are no more excuses’.

‘The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end,’ he added. ‘It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one.’

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that at least 22 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the north.

Palestinians sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed.

‘These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes. The house was destroyed due to the indiscriminate bombardment,’ said neighbour Mahmud al-Ghaf, describing ‘children in pieces’.

‘Stop the war!’ said Mahmud Nasr, who lost relatives. ‘We do not want anything from you, just stop the war.’

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Jabalia strike, but said separately that the air force had ‘struck dozens of targets throughout the Gaza Strip’ over the past day.

The White House said on Thursday that president Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had ‘submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed’.

Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal.

Hamas sources said last week that the group had accepted a US-backed deal, but on Thursday political bureau member Bassem Naim said the new version meant ‘the continuation of killing and famine and does not meet any of our people’s demands, foremost among them halting the war’.Political party merchandise

‘Nonetheless, the movement’s leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,’ he added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added that discussions were ‘continuing’ with the militants.

Naim on Friday reiterated that a review was on-going, while a source close to Hamas said one of the group’s main concerns was the lack of American guarantees that talks towards a permanent ceasefire would continue.

According to two sources close to the negotiations, the new proposal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days, and the release of five living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first week, followed by a second exchange the next week.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

As of Thursday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed major operations on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.

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

 

[Saif]

New US-backed truce proposal does not meet demands: Hamas

The White House said Thursday Israel had ‘signed off’ on a new Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, but the Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.

www.newagebd.net

New US-backed truce proposal does not meet demands: Hamas
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 31 May, 2025, 01:11

The White House said Thursday Israel had ‘signed off’ on a new Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, but the Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.

Negotiations to end more than 19 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March after a brief truce.

The White House said president Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had ‘submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed’.

‘Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding discussions were ‘continuing’ with the militants.

Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal.

Hamas sources said last week the group had accepted a US-backed deal, but on Thursday political bureau member Bassem Naim said the new version meant ‘the continuation of killing and famine and does not meet any of our people’s demands, foremost among them halting the war’.Political party merchandise

‘Nonetheless, the movement’s leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,’ he added.

A source close to the group said the new version ‘is considered a retreat’ from the previous one, which ‘included an American commitment regarding permanent ceasefire negotiations’.

According to two sources close to the negotiations, the new proposal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days, and the release of 10 living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first week.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite aid beginning to trickle back into the territory after a more than two-month Israeli blockade.

Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.

Israel has also intensified its military offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.

Gaza’s civil defence said 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday, including 23 in a strike on a home in Al-Bureij, and two by Israeli gunfire near a US-backed aid centre in the Morag axis, in the south.

The centre, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is part of a new aid distribution system designed to keep supplies from Hamas. It has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

‘What is happening to us is degrading,’ 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.’

Israel’s military said it was not aware of the shooting near the aid centre. In Al-Bureij, it said it struck a ‘Hamas cell’ and was reviewing reports of civilian deaths.

In a phone call with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of ‘systematic starvation tactics’ that had ‘crossed all moral and legal boundaries’.

The aid issue 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 UN, Danny Danon, said aid trucks were entering via the Kerem Shalom crossing, and accused the UN of ‘trying to block’ GHF’s work.

The United Nations said it was doing its utmost to distribute the limited aid allowed in.

Gazans who went to GHF’s newly opened distribution centre in the central Netzarim corridor Thursday described a chaotic scene.

‘Some people caused a big commotion and stormed the aid distribution point because people are very hungry,’ Mohammed Abdel Aal, 29, said.

‘I ran, like everyone else, trying to get an aid box.’

He left empty-handed after forces at the facility ‘fired bullets and grenades at us, which forced us to retreat’.

A 17-year-old from Al-Bureij, who gave his name as Yousef, offered a similar account, saying in spite of the gunfire, ‘hunger is stronger than fear’.

Asked to comment, GHF said its ‘personnel encountered a tense and potentially dangerous crowd that refused to disperse’.

To ‘ensure the safety of civilians and staff, non-lethal deterrents were deployed — including smoke and warning shots into the ground’, it said.

Medical facilities in Gaza, meanwhile, have come under increasing strain and repeated attack.

Al-Awda Hospital said Israeli troops were ‘carrying out a forced evacuation of patients and medical staff’, adding it was ‘the only hospital that was still operating in the northern Gaza Strip’.

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.

On Thursday, the military said an ‘employee of a contracting company that carries out engineering work’ was killed in northern Gaza.

Israel also intercepted a missile fired from Yemen Thursday in an attack claimed by the country’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.​

 

[Saif]

Don’t let Israel forcefully deport Palestinians

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now been going on for over 600 days.

www.thedailystar.net

Don’t let Israel forcefully deport Palestinians

Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli military offensive, shelter in a UNRWA school in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 28, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS

Israel's genocide in Gaza has now been going on for over 600 days. The Israeli government's larger vision is clear: erase the demography of Gaza and all of Occupied Palestine, and seize the geography. The intentions have been demonstrated by Israel through both actions and words. Its finance minister recently said the government was planning to "apply sovereignty" to the West Bank, Occupied Palestine in the near future, and within half a year, the population of Gaza would be "concentrated" in a "humanitarian zone," essentially a fenced-off piece of land in the destroyed Gaza Strip.

So the genocidal regime's plan goes like this: use evacuation orders and intense bombardment to trap Palestinians in Gaza in a concentration camp, then starve them there to a state of hopelessness so that they want to leave themselves. And then they will claim Palestine from Palestinians. We have seen this before during the Nakba in 1948 and the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel's latest mission is executing an arrangement and threatening the people of Gaza—manipulating them into leaving on their own "will" through the shutdown Israeli border. Earlier in March, its Defence Minister Israel Katz released a video statement warning Palestinians in Gaza, "Take the advice of the US president. Return the hostages and eliminate Hamas, and other options will open for you—including going to other places in the world for those who wish. The alternative is complete destruction and devastation."

Two bordering nations, Egypt and Jordan, supporting Palestinian statehood, have rejected the proposition of "taking in" Palestinian refugees in order to support the establishment of Palestinian statehood. Following that, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the wing in Israel's defence ministry that is responsible for overseeing "civilian matters in Gaza," is now executing the heinous scheme to push out Palestinian Gazans through the Israeli border. In March, the security cabinet launched "Voluntary Emigration Bureau for Gaza residents interested in relocating to third countries" to facilitate this goal with COGAT, which blocked 3,000 trucks of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza through that same border for 11 weeks to starve the children in Gaza to death. The images of their skeletal bodies are being circulated all throughout social media as I write this.

Since the development of this "voluntary exit plan," the Palestinian citizens in Gaza—young, old, injured, and starving—have received messages from Israeli numbers, including law firms based in Tel Aviv, offering them paperwork to "safely" travel out of Gaza. News reports have revealed that Israeli agencies are persuading Gazans to give them "extensive assistance," to travel to Ramon Airport in Israel from where they are. In reality, they are being deported. Israel's Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said on April 7 that Palestinians had been deported to various destinations in at least 16 flights by then. The term "deportation" implies they will not be allowed to return, further cementing that the goal of this policy is to simply empty the Gaza Strip of Palestinians.

Israel's rationale for "voluntary exit" under the premise of "humanitarian assistance" also collapses under international law. As upheld by international tribunals, particularly the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, "It is impermissible to use forced displacement as a response to a disaster that one has created."

It has come to our knowledge that some entities—including in parts of the world that have demonstrated solidarity to Palestinians—are knowingly or unknowingly helping Israel expel Palestinians from Gaza under initiatives that appear humane on the surface. We must not fall into this trap after seeing with our own eyes what Israel has done to the Palestinians in Gaza over more than 600 days.

We must understand that "helping" Palestinians by hosting them as refugees forced out through the border of Israel undermines the Palestinian cause. I appeal to the people of conscience in Bangladesh as well as the decision-makers to not allow such heinous acts to take place under the pretext of protecting Palestinian lives in the Gaza Strip. Bangladesh should not be an alternative refuge for pushed-out, exploited citizens in Gaza under any circumstances. Israel's deceitful plan has also been criticised by UN officials who emphasise the Palestinians' right to live in their own land, and warn that forced migration is directly fostering Israel's vision to annihilate Gaza. It is imperative that the world realises that, especially the people of Bangladesh, who have set standards of humanity by unwaveringly standing beside Palestine throughout its history and shown historic solidarity for the Palestinians during Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Yousef SY Ramadan is the ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli attack near aid delivery point kills 31 in Gaza, truce talks falter

An Israeli attack near an aid distribution point run by a private US-based group killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel exchanged blame over a faltering effort to secure a ceasefire.

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Israeli attack near aid delivery point kills 31 in Gaza, truce talks falter
Reuters Cairo, Gaza
Published: 01 Jun 2025, 17: 25

A paramedic carries a Palestinian man wounded in an Israeli strike, at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 1 June, 2025. Reuters

An Israeli attack near an aid distribution point run by a private US-based group killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel exchanged blame over a faltering effort to secure a ceasefire.

The incident in Rafah in the south of the enclave was the latest in a series highlighting the volatile security situation complicating aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing of an almost three-month Israeli blockade last month.

"There are martyrs and injuries. Many injuries. It is a tragic situation in this place. I advise them that nobody goes to aid delivery points. Enough,” paramedic Abu Tareq said at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis city.

The local Palestinian Red Crescent, affiliated with the international Red Cross, said its medical teams had recovered the bodies of 23 Palestinians and treated another 23 injured near an aid collection site in Rafah. The US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates the aid distribution sites in Rafah.

The Red Crescent also reported that 14 more Palestinians were injured near a separate site in central Gaza. GHF also operates the aid distribution site in central Gaza.

Earlier, the Palestinian news agency WAFA and Hamas-affiliated media put the number of deaths at 30. Local health authorities said at least 31 bodies had so far arrived at Nasser Hospital.

Israel's military said in a statement it was looking into reports that Palestinians had been shot at an aid distribution site but that it was unaware of injuries caused by military fire. GHF denied anyone had been killed or injured near their site in Rafah and that all of its distribution had taken place without incident.

The US company accused Hamas of fabricating "fake reports".

Residents and medics said Israeli soldiers fired from the ground at a crane nearby that overlooks the area, and a tank opened fire at thousands of people who were en route to get aid from the site in Rafah. Reuters footage showed ambulance vehicles carrying injured people to Nasser Hospital.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israel has turned the distribution sites into "death traps" for people desperate to get some aid.

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, 31 May, 2025. AFP

"We affirm to the world that what is taking place is a deliberate and malicious use of aid as a 'weapon of war', employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military," it said.

GHF is a US-based entity backed by the US and Israeli governments that provides humanitarian aid in Gaza, bypassing traditional relief groups. It began work in Gaza last month and has three sites from where thousands have collected aid.

GHF has been widely criticised by the international community and its executive director resigned in May, citing what he said was the entity’s lack of independence and neutrality. It is not clear who is funding the company.

Israeli officials have said that Palestinians collecting aid would be screened to exclude anyone linked to Hamas.

Ceasefire Talks Falter

Sunday's incident happened as Israel and Hamas traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and US mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, but President Donald Trump's envoy rejected the group's response as "totally unacceptable."

The Palestinian militant group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his government had agreed to Witkoff's outline.

Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza.

Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing over 54,000 Palestinians and destroying most buildings. Much of the population now live in shelters in makeshift camps. Gaza health officials report that most of the dead are civilians, though the number of militants killed remains unclear.​

 

[Saif]

‘All I think about is Gaza’

Away from home in Gaza, Palestinian pilgrim Mohammed Shehade said the rare chance he was given to perform hajj is overshadowed by fears for his family trapped in the war-battered territory.

www.thedailystar.net

‘All I think about is Gaza’
War weighs heavy on hajj pilgrims

Demonstrators lie on the ground covered with white sheets as they take part in a protest performance in support of the Palestinian people of Gaza, under the slogan “Stop genocide, Break with Israel now!” in the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian, yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Away from home in Gaza, Palestinian pilgrim Mohammed Shehade said the rare chance he was given to perform hajj is overshadowed by fears for his family trapped in the war-battered territory.

The 38-year-old engineer had been granted a permit to leave as he sought life-saving cancer treatment in Egypt, but Israeli authorities barred his family from accompanying him.

He said his departure from the Gaza Strip in February presented him with "the opportunity of a lifetime" to apply for the annual Muslim pilgrimage, which begins on Wednesday.

But even as he visited the holy sites in the Saudi city of Makkah, his heart was heavy with thoughts of his wife and four children stuck in Gaza under relentless bombardment.

"This is life's greatest suffering, to be far away from your family," Shehade told AFP on a roadside leading to Makkah's Grand Mosque.

He is among hundreds of Gazans set to perform Islam's holiest rites alongside more than a million worshippers from across the globe.

As pilgrims robed in white filed by, Shehade said he had been praying day and night for the Gaza war to end and to be reunited with his family.

"You could be in the best place in the world but if you are away from your family, you will never be happy," he said.

Leaving Gaza has become practically impossible for most inhabitants, but some like Shehade have been evacuated on medical grounds.

"Here I am preparing to perform hajj but there are things I can't speak about. If I do I will cry," he said as tears began to form in his eyes.

Shehade left Gaza during a truce, but Israel has since renewed its intense bombing campaign and blocked aid deliveries, with the United Nations warning of widespread famine.

"When I left I was caught between two fires," Shehade said of the choice to travel for an essential surgery and leave his family behind.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 4,149 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall deaths toll to 54,418, mostly civilians.​

 

[Saif]

Qatar, Egypt say will intensify efforts to resume Gaza truce talks

Netanyahu vowed on Monday to bring back all captives in Gaza, “living and dead” amid uncertainty in the hostage negotiations.

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Qatar, Egypt say will intensify efforts to resume Gaza truce talks

AFP Doha
Published: 02 Jun 2025, 09: 31

A boy walks with a sack of salvaged items through debris at the site of Israeli bombardment on a residential block in Jalaa Street in Gaza City on 14 January, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. AFP

Qatar and Egypt announced on Sunday plans to step up efforts for Gaza truce negotiations, as the Palestinian militant group Hamas said it was prepared to “immediately” hold a fresh round of talks.

“Qatar and Egypt, in coordination with the United States of America, affirm their intention to intensify efforts to overcome the obstacles facing the negotiations,” the two mediators said in a joint statement.

“The two countries are also striving to swiftly reach a 60-day temporary truce, which would pave the way for a permanent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.

Doha, Cairo and Washington have been engaged in months of back-and-forth mediation with Israel and Hamas but another round of negotiations aimed at ending 20 months of war in Gaza this week appeared to conclude once more without a breakthrough.

A two-month truce, in which dozens of hostages held by Hamas were released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, collapsed in March, with Israel intensifying military operations in Gaza afterwards.

Following the statement by the Arab mediators, Hamas said it was ready “to immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement on the points of contention”.

Hamas previously said it had responded positively—albeit with requested amendments—to the latest US-backed truce proposal on Saturday which would see 10 living hostages released form Gaza.

Militants took 251 hostages during the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel which triggered the war, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

The United States envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, wrote on X that Hamas’s response was “totally unacceptable and only takes us backward”.

“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,” the envoy said.

“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days,” he added.

Netanyahu vowed on Monday to bring back all captives in Gaza, “living and dead” amid uncertainty in the hostage negotiations.

Israel has in recent weeks expanded its offensive in the Gaza Strip, drawing international condemnation as aid trickles in following a months-long blockade that has caused severe food and medical shortages.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,149 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,418, mostly civilians.

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