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

[Saif]

Israel presses offensive in Gaza

Israel’s military pressed ground operations across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, urging Palestinians to flee an offensive in Rafah city nearly a week into a renewed assault on the Hamas-ruled territory.

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Israel presses offensive in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 24 March, 2025, 00:16

Palestinian children react as they inspect the rubble and debris at the site of Israeli strikes the night before at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. | AFP photo

Israel’s military pressed ground operations across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, urging Palestinians to flee an offensive in Rafah city nearly a week into a renewed assault on the Hamas-ruled territory.

The latest evacuation warning follows a deadly flare-up in Lebanon and missiles fired from Yemen, while Israeli troops are again deploying to parts of Gaza despite calls to revive a January truce.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday that the war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 50,021 people in the territory.

AFP was unable to independently verify the figure. Gaza’s civil defence agency said separately, citing its own records, that the death toll has topped 50,000 people.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

In a statement on X on Sunday, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the army ‘launched an offensive to strike the terrorist organisations’ in a district of the southern city of Rafah, already the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago.

In a message that AFP correspondents said also appeared on leaflets dropped over the area by drone, Adraee called on Palestinians there to leave the ‘dangerous combat zone’ in Tal al-Sultan district and move further north.

At a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city just north of Rafah, 19-year-old Iman al-Bardawil said many displaced Palestinians like her struggle to ‘afford food and drink’.

‘We are in the month of Ramadan, which is a blessed month, and people find themselves obliged to come here,’ Bardawil said, lamenting ‘the suffering’ she saw around her.

‘I’m here to get rice for the children, but it’s gone,’ said Saed Abu al-Jidyan, who like Bardawil had fled his home in northern Gaza.

‘The crossings are closed, and my salary has been suspended since the beginning of the war there is no food in Gaza.’

Before its renewed assault, Israel in early March blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza and cut electricity supplies, in a bid to force Hamas to accept the Israeli terms for an extension of the ceasefire and release the 58 hostages held by Palestinian militants.

The electricity supplied by Israel had fed Gaza’s main water desalination plant, and the decision to cut power has aggravated already dire conditions for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

The Israeli military said troops were also operating in northern Gaza and working ‘to expand the security zone’ there.

On Friday, defence minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the army to ‘seize more territory in Gaza’, warning Israel could annex it if Hamas failed to heed Israel’s demands for the next steps in the Gaza ceasefire.

Hamas has accused Israel of sacrificing the hostages with its resumption of bombardments, while many of the families of the captives have called for a renewed ceasefire, noting that most of those released alive did so during truce periods.

The military said its ‘fighter jets struck several Hamas targets’ in northern Gaza on Sunday.

An Israeli air strike on Saturday on a displacement camp in the Khan Yunis area killed senior Hamas political official Salah al-Bardawil and his wife, the group said.

Murad al-Najjar, who lives in the area, said he ‘heard a very loud explosion. Our tents were destroyed. And we saw that a man and his wife were martyred.’

Bardawil is the third member of Hamas’s political bureau killed in Israeli strikes since last week.

Pope Francis called on Sunday for an immediate end to the Israeli strikes and for the resumption of dialogue for the release of hostages and secure a ‘definitive ceasefire’.

According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli assault since Tuesday.

The escalation in Gaza coincided with a wave of Israeli air strikes on Lebanon on Saturday in response to rocket fire, which militant group Hezbollah — an ally of Hamas — denied responsibility for.

In the most intense escalation since a November ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, the Lebanese health ministry said seven people were killed on Saturday.

On Sunday the health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a border village.

Since intense fighting resumed in Gaza on Tuesday, Hamas has fired rockets and Yemen’s Huthi rebels have launched several missiles at Israel.

Early on Sunday, Israel said it had intercepted a missile from Yemen, part of an escalation with the Iran-backed Huthis who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.

In Israel, crowds took to the streets on Saturday to protest moves by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for an end to the war.

Signs read ‘No more bloodshed’ and ‘Stop the war, Now!’ to ensure the return of the hostages still in Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

Palestinians denounce Israeli recognition of new West Bank settlements

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.

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Palestinians denounce Israeli recognition of new West Bank settlements
Agence France-Presse . Ramallah 23 March, 2025, 22:05

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.

The decision by Israel’s security cabinet was a show of ‘disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions’, said a statement from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 5,00,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader and settler who was behind the cabinet’s decision, hailed it as an ‘important step’ for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Smotrich is a leading voice calling for Israel to formally annex the West Bank — as it did in 1967 after capturing east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

‘The recognition of each neighbourhood as a separate community is an important step that would help their development,’ Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a ‘revolution’.

‘Instead of hiding and apologising, we raise the flag, we build and we settle,’ he said.

‘This is another important step towards de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,’ added Smotrich, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.

In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an on-going major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by ‘an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands’.

The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some of them are effectively part of the bigger settlements they belong to while others are practically separate.

Their recognition as separate communities under Israeli law is not yet final.

Hailing the ‘normalisation’ of settlement expansion, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision.

According to EU figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record in settlement building permits issued by Israel.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas accuses US of distorting truth

Hamas on Saturday accused the United States of distorting the truth by saying the Palestinian militant group had chosen war with Israel by refusing to release hostages.

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Hamas accuses US of distorting truth
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City, Palestinian Territories 22 March, 2025, 23:59

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a structure hit by an Israeli bombardment in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Saturday. | AFP photo.

Hamas on Saturday accused the United States of distorting the truth by saying the Palestinian militant group had chosen war with Israel by refusing to release hostages.

‘The claim that ‘Hamas chose war instead of releasing the hostages’ is a distortion of the facts,’ Hamas said in a statement in response to the accusation from US national security council spokesperson Brian Hughes on Tuesday.

He had said: ‘Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.’

The Palestinian militant group added that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘rejected these initiatives and deliberately sabotaged them to serve his political interests,’ referring to criticism he has faced in Israel, including from families of hostages held in Gaza.

Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday before sending troops back into areas evacuated during the pause in fighting.

Israel says its military campaign is necessary to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and secure the freedom of about 60 captives, dead or alive.

Many hostage families have instead called for a renewed ceasefire, noting most captives who returned alive did so during truce periods.

In its statement, Hamas accused the United States of equating ‘the aggressor with the victim’.

The mayor of Israel’s northern border town of Metula criticised the government on the same day after the area was targeted with rocket fire from Lebanon, and called for a return to war.

‘We will not return to the reality of October 6th ... and this is what the IDF, the Northern Command, and the Israeli government are trying to normalise,’ Metula mayor David Azoulay told AFP.

Metula, a town of 2,400 residents, was evacuated during more than a year of cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel’s military and Hezbollah.

Azoulay said that since the November truce, just eight per cent of Metula’s population had returned, and that some residents left again on Saturday after the rocket fire.

The mayor called on the Israeli authorities to ‘act offensively and make it so that not one bullet is fired ever again at northern communities’.

‘As far as I’m concerned, we should return to war, even if one bullet is fired towards Israel,’ he said.

Israel’s military said on Saturday it had struck ‘dozens of Hezbollah rocket launchers’ in southern Lebanon.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz ordered strikes against ‘dozens of terrorist targets’ in Lebanon in response to the fire, which has not yet been claimed by any group.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement called on its Islamist rivals Hamas on Saturday to relinquish power in order to safeguard the ‘existence’ of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

‘Hamas must show compassion for Gaza, its children, women and men,’ Fatah spokesman Monther al-Hayek said in a message sent to AFP from Gaza.

He called on Hamas to ‘step aside from governing and fully recognise that the battle ahead will lead to the end of Palestinians’ existence’ if it remains in power in Gaza.

The territory has been devastated by an Israeli offensive in retaliation for the assault by Hamas and other Palestinian militants on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Nearly 50,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu says Israel could seize territory in Gaza if hostages not freed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated threats on Wednesday to seize territory in the Gaza strip if Hamas failed to release the remaining hostages it still holds. "The more Hamas continues in its refusal to release our hostages, the more powerful the repression we exert will be," Netan

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Netanyahu says Israel could seize territory in Gaza if hostages not freed
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 26, 2025 18:40
Updated :
Mar 26, 2025 18:40

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, 12 March 2025. Photo : Yair Sagi/Pool via REUTERS/Files

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated threats on Wednesday to seize territory in the Gaza strip if Hamas failed to release the remaining hostages it still holds.

"The more Hamas continues in its refusal to release our hostages, the more powerful the repression we exert will be," Netanyahu told a hearing in parliament, which was occasionally interrupted by shouting from opposition members.

"This includes seizing territory and it includes other things," he said.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills Hamas spokesman in Gaza

Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed one of its official spokesmen in Gaza on Thursday, the latest high-ranking operative targeted since Israel resumed its bombardment...

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Israeli strike kills Hamas spokesman in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 27 March, 2025, 23:12

Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed one of its official spokesmen in Gaza on Thursday, the latest high-ranking operative targeted since Israel resumed its bombardment.

The group said in a statement it mourned the loss of Abdul Latif al-Qanou who was killed in what it called a ‘direct’ strike on a tent he was in, in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.

A fragile ceasefire that brought weeks of relative calm to Gaza ended on March 18 with Israel resuming its bombing campaign across the territory.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 855 people have been killed since.

Qanou is the latest Hamas official to be killed in recent Israeli strikes.

Israel’s military said last week it had killed the head of Hamas’s internal security agency, Rashid Jahjouh, in an air strike.

Days earlier, Hamas had named the head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, and interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa, among a list of officials it said were killed in strikes.

The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Dalis, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who became the head of its administration in Gaza in June 2021.

Hamas has also confirmed the deaths of Salah al-Bardawil and Yasser Harb, both members of its political bureau.

‘The occupation’s targeting of the movement’s leaders and spokespersons will not break our will,’ Hamas said Thursday.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza truce talks with mediators stepping up: Hamas

Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim told AFP Friday that talks over a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian Islamist movement and mediators are gaining momentum as Israel continues intensive operations in Gaza.

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Gaza truce talks with mediators stepping up: Hamas
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City, Palestinian Territories 29 March, 2025, 00:44

Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim told AFP Friday that talks over a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian Islamist movement and mediators are gaining momentum as Israel continues intensive operations in Gaza.

‘We hope that the coming days will bring a real breakthrough in the war situation, following intensified communications with and between mediators in recent days’, Naim told AFP.

Palestinian sources close to Hamas had told AFP that talks began Thursday evening between the militant group and mediators from Egypt and Qatar to revive a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza.

Naim said Friday the proposal ‘aims to achieve a ceasefire, open border crossings, [and] allow humanitarian aid in’.

Most importantly, he said, the proposal aims to bring about a resumption in ‘negotiations on the second phase, which must lead to a complete end to the war and the withdrawal of occupation forces’.

A fragile ceasefire that had brought weeks of relative calm to the Gaza Strip ended on March 18 when Israel resumed its bombing campaign across the territory.

Negotiations on a second phase of the truce had stalled—Israel wanted the ceasefire’s initial phase extended, while Hamas demanded talks on a second stage that was meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 896 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes.

Days later, Palestinian militants resumed rocket launches towards Israel from Gaza.

During the first phase of the truce which took hold on January 19, 1,800 Palestinian prisoners were freed in exchange for 33 hostages held in Gaza, most of them since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during Hamas’s attack which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The talks in Doha started a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to seize parts of Gaza if Hamas did not release hostages, and Hamas warned they would return ‘in coffins’ if Israel did not stop bombing the Palestinian territory.

Naim said Hamas was approaching talks ‘with full responsibility, positivity, and flexibility’, focusing on ending the war.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas agrees to Gaza ceasefire proposal, its chief says

Hamas has agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received two days ago from mediators Egypt and Qatar, the Palestinian militant group's chief said on Saturday. "Two days ago, we received a proposal from the mediators in Egypt and Qatar. We dealt with it positively and accepted it," Khalil al-Hayya

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Hamas agrees to Gaza ceasefire proposal, its chief says
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 30, 2025 11:37
Updated :
Mar 30, 2025 11:58

Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon on November 21, 2023 — Reuters/File

Hamas has agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received two days ago from mediators Egypt and Qatar, the Palestinian militant group's chief said on Saturday.

"Two days ago, we received a proposal from the mediators in Egypt and Qatar. We dealt with it positively and accepted it," Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised speech.

"We hope that the (Israeli) occupation will not undermine (it)," said Hayya, who leads the Hamas negotiating team in indirect talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza that erupted in October 2023.

Security sources told Reuters on Thursday that Egypt had received positive indications from Israel over a new ceasefire proposal that would include a transitional phase.

The proposal suggests Hamas release five of the Israeli hostages it is holding each week, the sources said.

The Israeli prime minister's office said it had held a series of consultations according to the proposal that was received from the mediators, and that Israel had conveyed to the mediators a counter-proposal in full coordination with the United States.

Reuters asked the prime minister's office if it had also agreed to the ceasefire proposal but it did not immediately respond.

PHASED CEASEFIRE

The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force on Jan. 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.

Phase two of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Hamas says any proposals must allow the launch of the second phase, while Israel has offered to expand the first 42-day phase.

In response to calls on Hamas to disarm by Israel and the United States, Hayya said the group's arsenal was a red line and that it would not disarm as long as the "Israeli" occupation exists.

Israel and the US say Hamas must not have a role in post-war Gaza arrangements.

Israeli military strikes on Gaza continued on Saturday, killing at least 20 Palestinians across the enclave, health authorities said.

The Israeli military said it had begun "ground activity" in the Jneina neighbourhood of the Rafah area to expand what it described as the security zone in southern Gaza.

On March 18, Israel resumed bombing and ground operations in Gaza, which it said were intended to increase pressure on Hamas to free hostages.

It has since issued evacuation orders to tens of thousands of residents in several areas in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, citing rocket firing into Israeli territories.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian officials say.

Israel began its offensive after thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu vows to pressure Hamas after ceasefire proposal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated a demand on Sunday for Hamas to disarm and for its leaders to leave Gaza as he promised to step up pressure on the group while continuing efforts to return hostages..He said Israel would work to implement US President Donald Trump’s “volun

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Netanyahu vows to pressure Hamas after ceasefire proposal

A Palestinian woman visits the grave of her relative at a cemetery, on the first day of Eid-ul-Fitr that marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 30, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated a demand on Sunday for Hamas to disarm and for its leaders to leave Gaza as he promised to step up pressure on the group while continuing efforts to return hostages.

He said Israel would work to implement US President Donald Trump's "voluntary emigration plan" for Gaza and said his cabinet had agreed to keep pressuring Hamas, which says it has agreed to a ceasefire proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Netanyahu's comments were a recipe for "endless escalation" in the region.

Netanyahu rejected assertions that Israel, which has resumed its bombardment of Gaza after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the enclave, was not negotiating, saying "we are conducting it under fire, and therefore it is also effective".

"We see that there are suddenly cracks," he said in a video statement issued on Sunday.

On Saturday, Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group had agreed to a proposal that security sources said included the release of five Israeli hostages each week. But he said laying down its arms as Israel has demanded was a "red line" the group would not cross.

On Sunday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, health authorities in Gaza said at least 24 people, including several children, had been killed in Israeli strikes. Nine were killed in a single tent in the southern city of Khan Younis, they said.

Later on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Service said it had finally been able to get access to search for rescue teams that had come under Israeli fire during a rescue mission in western Rafah, a week after the attack.

It said it had recovered 13 bodies from the scene, seven of them were Palestinian Red Crescent members, another five were from the Gaza Civil Emergency Service, and another was a United Nations worker. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Since Israel resumed its attacks in Gaza on March 18, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate areas in northern Gaza where they had returned following the ceasefire agreement in January.

Netanyahu said Israel was demanding that Hamas lay down its arms and said its leaders would be allowed to leave Gaza. He gave no detail on how long Israeli troops would remain in the enclave but repeated that Hamas's military and government capacities must be crushed.

"We will ensure general security in the Gaza Strip and enable the implementation of the Trump plan, the voluntary emigration plan," he said. "That is the plan, we do not hide it, we are ready to discuss it at any time."

Trump originally proposed moving the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza to countries including Egypt and Jordan and developing the Gaza Strip as a US-owned resort. However, no country has agreed to take in the population and Israel has since said that any departures by Palestinians would be voluntary.

Eid In Gaza

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after a devastating Hamas attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023 that killed some 1,200 people, according to an Israeli tally, and saw 251 abducted as hostages.

The Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and devastated much of the coastal enclave, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in tents and makeshift shelters.

Sunday's strikes took place as Palestinians celebrated the Eid holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"We are here to celebrate the rituals of God amid the destruction and the sounds of cannons," said Minnatallah Al-Far, in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, where most of the area has been laid waste by Israeli bombardment.

"In Gaza, our situation is very difficult. Other people are celebrating these rituals in peace and safety, but we do them amid destruction and bombardment," she said.

In Israel, Netanyahu has faced a wave of demonstrations since the military resumed its action in Gaza, with families and supporters of the remaining 59 hostages joining forces with protesters angry at government actions they see as undermining Israeli democracy.

On Sunday, he rejected what he described as "empty claims and slogans" and said military pressure was the only thing that had returned hostages.​