Hamas says it has given ‘positive' response to latest ceasefire proposal

South Wales Guardian

a day ago

It comes as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid on Friday.
The UN human rights office says it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid.
Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organisation, while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the UN or other humanitarian organisations.
Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings.
But she said 'it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points' operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
In a message to The Associated Press, Ms Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were 'GHF-related' – meaning at or near its distribution sites.
'Information keeps coming in,' she added. 'This is ongoing and it is unacceptable.'
The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel's military.
In a statement Friday, GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures and accused the UN of trying 'to falsely smear our effort'.
The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders on Friday in north-east Khan Younis and urged Palestinians to move west ahead of planned military operations against Hamas in the area.
The new evacuation zones pushed Palestinians into increasingly smaller spaces by the coast.
– 20 killed Friday while seeking aid
Since GHF began distributions in late May, witnesses have said almost daily that Israeli troops open fire on crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading through military-controlled zones to the food centres.
Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said at least three Palestinians were killed on Friday on their way to GHF sites in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military has said previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops.
On Friday, in reaction to the UN report, it said in a statement that it was investigating reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid and that it had given instructions to troops in the field based on 'lessons learned' from reviewing the incidents.
It said it was working at 'minimising possible friction between the population' and Israeli forces, including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes.
Separately, witnesses have said Israeli troops open fire on crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the UN or other aid organisations not associated with GHF. The crowds are usually made up of people desperate for food who grab supplies off the passing trucks.
On Friday, 17 people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area, officials at Nasser Hospital said.
Three survivors told the AP they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military 'red zone' in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones.
It was a 'crowd of people, may God help them, who want to eat and live,' said Seddiq Abu Farhana, who was shot in the leg, forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed. 'There was direct firing.'
Airstrikes also hit the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza's Mediterranean coast, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes are sheltering in tent camps.
Of the 15 people killed in the strikes, eight were women and one was a child, according to the hospital.
Israel's military said it was looking into Friday's reported strikes.
– Efforts ongoing to halt the war
The recent killings took place as efforts to halt the 21-month war appeared to be moving forward.
'We'll see what happens. We're going to know over the next 24 hours,' US President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.
A Palestinian official told AP on Friday that Hamas is still working on its response the proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
He said the response will be positive but added that Hamas is insisting on guarantees regarding an Israeli withdrawal to positions it held on March 2, during a previous ceasefire, and an end to the war following a 60-day truce as well as ending the GHF system for distributing aid.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk the press.
Mr Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.