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

[Saif]

UN reports 798 deaths near Gaza aid hubs in six weeks

The UN rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near convoys run by other relief groups. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to ge

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

UN reports 798 deaths near Gaza aid hubs in six weeks

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 11, 2025 21:14
Updated :
Jul 11, 2025 21:14

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, Jul 10, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The UN rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near convoys run by other relief groups.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians trying to reach the GHF’s aid hubs in zones where Israeli forces operate, the United Nations has called its aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

“(From May 27) up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” UN rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, told Reuters the UN figures were “false and misleading”. It denies that deadly incidents have occurred at its sites.

“The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid site have been linked to UN convoys,” a GHF spokesperson said.

“Ultimately, the solution is more aid. If the UN (and) other humanitarian groups would collaborate with us, we could end or significantly reduce these violent incidents”.

The Israeli army told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

GUNSHOT WOUNDS

The OHCHR said it based its figures on sources such as information from hospitals in Gaza, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground.

Most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by the OHCHR since May 27 were gunshot wounds, Shamdasani said.

“We’ve raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food,” she said.

After the GHF assertion that the OHCHR figures are false and misleading, Shamdasani said: “It is not helpful to issue blanket dismissals of our concerns - what is needed is investigations into why people are being killed while trying to access aid”.

Israel has said its forces operate near the relief aid sites to prevent supplies from falling into the hands of militants it has been fighting in the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Oct 7, 2023.

The GHF said on Friday it had delivered more than 70 million meals to Gaza Palestinians in five weeks, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities”.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies 21 months into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, during which much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble and most of its 2.3 million inhabitants displaced.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic with no immediate truce in sight

An Israeli airstrike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza on Thursday, killing 10 children and six adults, local health authorities said, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no immediate deal expected. Verified video footage from the strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showe

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic with no immediate truce in sight

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 10, 2025 23:30
Updated :
Jul 10, 2025 23:30

Palestinian newborns share an incubator at Al-Helou hospital due to fuel crisis, according to medics, amid the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City, July 10, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

An Israeli airstrike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza on Thursday, killing 10 children and six adults, local health authorities said, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no immediate deal expected.

Verified video footage from the strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showed the bodies of women and children lying in pools of blood amid dust and screaming. One clip showed several motionless children lying on a donkey cart.

"She didn't do anything, she was innocent, I swear. Her dream was for the war to end and that they announce it today, to go back to school," said Samah al-Nouri, sitting by the body of her daughter who was killed in the blast.

"She was only getting treatment in a medical facility. Why did they kill them?" she said, with other bodies laid out around her at a nearby hospital.

Israel's military said it had struck a militant who took part in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. It said it was aware of reports regarding a number of injured bystanders and that the incident was under review.

The Deir al-Balah missile strike came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators hold talks with mediators in Qatar over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal aimed at building agreement on a lasting truce.

A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that an agreement was not likely to be secured for another one or two weeks, however US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday he was hopeful of a deal.

"I think we're closer, and I think perhaps we're closer than we've been in quite a while," Rubio told reporters at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.

Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have failed to produce a breakthrough since the Israeli military resumed its campaign in March following a previous ceasefire.

Repeated attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks have killed hundreds of Gazans, many of them civilians, and injured thousands, according to local health authorities, putting an enormous strain on the enclave's few remaining hospitals.

Dwindling fuel supplies risk further disruption in the semi-functioning hospitals, including to incubators at the neonatal unit of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, doctors there said.

"We are forced to place four, five or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the hospital director, adding that premature babies were now in a critical condition.

TALKS

US President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to discuss the situation in Gaza amid reports that Israel and Hamas were nearing agreement on a US-brokered ceasefire proposal after 21 months of war.

The Israeli official who was in Washington with Netanyahu said that if the two sides agree to the ceasefire plan, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent truce requiring Hamas to disarm.

If Hamas refuses, "we'll proceed" with military operations in Gaza, the official said on condition of anonymity.

A Palestinian official said the talks in Qatar were in crisis and that issues under dispute, including whether Israel would continue to occupy parts of Gaza after a ceasefire, had yet to be resolved.

The two sides previously agreed a ceasefire in January but it did not lead to a deal on a permanent truce and Israel resumed its military assault two months later, stopping all aid supplies into Gaza and telling civilians to leave the north of the tiny territory.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has now killed more than 57,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. It has destroyed swathes of the territory and driven most Gazans from their homes.

The Hamas attack on Israeli border communities that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people and the militant group seized around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

There has also been repeated violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli man was killed at a shopping centre in the territory on Thursday by two Palestinian militants, who were then shot dead, police said.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was shot dead after he stabbed and injured a soldier, the army said.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday. The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 12, 2025 16:36
Updated :
Jul 12, 2025 16:36

A Palestinian child stands at the site of an overnight Israeli air strike on a house, in Gaza City, July 11, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/Files

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless expected to continue, the sources said, despite the latest obstacles in clinching a deal.

A Palestinian source said that Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps which Israel has proposed, as they would leave around 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control, including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.

Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.

The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis may be resolved with more US intervention.

The White House said on Monday that Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions there.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.

Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages are released and Hamas is dismantled.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.

Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza ceasefire talks stalled over Israeli withdrawal plans

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel’s proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday...

www.newagebd.net

Gaza ceasefire talks stalled over Israeli withdrawal plans
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 13 July, 2025, 01:46

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel’s proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday.

Delegations from both sides began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree on a temporary halt to the 21-month conflict sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 2023 attack on Israel.

Israel has meanwhile kept up its strikes on Gaza and the territory’s civil defence agency said more than 20 people were killed on Saturday, including in an air strike on an area sheltering the displaced.

‘We all generally came here because we were told it was a safe area,’ Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the overnight attack in an area of Gaza City.

In southern Gaza, bodies covered in white plastic sheets were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis while wounded in Rafah were taken for treatment by donkey cart, on stretchers or carried, AFP photographs showed.

If an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire were reached, both Hamas and Israel have said 10 hostages taken in 2023 who remain alive in captivity would be released.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared then to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities.

But one Palestinian source, speaking anonymously, said Israel’s refusal to accept Hamas’s demand to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza was holding back progress.

A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone the talks until the arrival of US president Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in the Qatari capital.

They added that Israel was proposing to maintain military forces in more than 40 per cent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

‘Hamas’s delegation will not accept the Israeli maps... as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,’ they said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.

The second Palestinian source accused the Israeli delegation of having no authority, and ‘stalling and obstructing the agreement in order to continue the war of extermination’.

The Gaza war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized, 49 are still being held, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

At least 57,882 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Seven UN agencies warned in a joint statement on Saturday that if fuel runs out in Gaza, it would be ‘an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation’.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had attacked ‘approximately 250 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip’ in the previous 48 hours.​