Israel continues airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas says it is ready for ceasefire talks
The announcement by the militant Islamist organisation boosted hopes that a deal may be done within days to pause the killing in Gaza and possibly end the near 21-month conflict.
Saturday was relatively 'calmer' after days of intense bombardment, aid officials and residents in Gaza said, although 24 Palestinians were killed, including 10 people seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospital officials.
Airstrikes struck tents in the Mawasi coastal area in southern Gaza, killing seven, including a Palestinian doctor and his three children, according to medics at a nearby hospital. Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila, and three people were killed in three different strikes in the town of Khan Younis.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made no immediate comment on the attacks.
Israel's security cabinet was due to meet after sundown on Saturday but officials in Jerusalem said there was 'no guarantee' that ministers would make a decision on the Hamas response to the ceasefire deal.
Separately, two US contractors with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) were injured in the south of the territory after unknown assailants threw grenades at them at a food distribution site, the organisation said.
The GHF, a US-supported private organisation that began handing out food parcels in Gaza last month, has been mired in controversy, with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, saying it was 'inherently unsafe' and that it was 'killing people'. The GHF deny this, saying it has delivered tens of millions of meals in 'safety and security'.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks in shooting or shelling by the IDF while travelling to GHF sites or gathering in large crowds to get aid from convoys brought into Gaza by the UN that are often stopped and looted.
Aid workers in Gaza have called again for an immediate cessation of hostilities, saying that fuel stocks for NGOs are close to running out, which would lead to the 'complete collapse' of humanitarian operations, much of the health system and communications across the territory. Power supplies in Gaza rely primarily on large quantities of diesel for generators.
'We are pretty much down to about half a day's worth. When that is gone, everything has to shut down,' said one humanitarian worker in Deir al-Balah.
Israel imposed a tight 11-week blockade on Gaza after the most recent ceasefire collapsed in March, which has only been partially lifted to allow a small amount of food aid and medical supplies into the territory. No fuel has been permitted to enter, and supplies that still exist in Gaza are often in Israeli-controlled areas or combat zones and so inaccessible.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, is to fly to Washington on Sunday for talks with the US president, Donald Trump, who has said in a series of social media posts that he wants the Gaza war to stop.
Drafts of the proposed deal seen by the Guardian include a provision specifying that Trump would personally announce any ceasefire – possibly in the coming days during Netanyahu's visit.
However, sources close to Hamas said the organisation wants greater clarity over guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a permanent end to the war and the eventual withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
There is also disagreement over who would be allowed to deliver the 'sufficient aid' described in the draft. Hamas want the GHF to be closed down. Israel wants to maintain a system of distribution independent from the UN or other countries.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One late on Friday, Trump said he was optimistic and suggested there 'could be a Gaza deal' next week. But Israeli media have described a series of steps involving separate Israeli delegations flying to Qatar and Egypt to complete negotiations, and the current draft specifies that Steve Witkoff, Trump's personal envoy, will travel to the Middle East to finalise the deal.
Analysts said this could mean lengthy delays before an agreement is reached.
The war in Gaza was triggered by a surprise Hamas-led attack into Israel in October 2023, during which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Fifty remain in Gaza, less than half still alive.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to a count by the territory's ministry of health that is considered reliable by the UN and many western governments.
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The Sun
34 minutes ago
- The Sun
Inside Israel's frontline rescue crew… from pulling families out of rubble to dodging Iranian missiles
IT'S the dead of night when Captain Yehudit's phone suddenly starts ringing. On her way home from the day job, the reservist's battalion commander warns her Iranian missiles are incoming. 13 13 13 13 13 Defended by arguably one of the most technologically magnificent missile shields in the world, incoming rockets are largely shot down by quick-thinking soldiers. But no system can ever be perfect - and a very small percentage of barrages crash, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Within hours, the mum found herself pulling bodies out of the wreckage after Iranian missiles blitzed civilian homes in Be'er Sheva. She was joined at the devastating scene by Major Neta and rescue forces of Battalion 923 - part of the Home Front Command's Southern District - who worked tirelessly for the next 13 hours to help panicked citizens. It was the first of three blitzes on the southern Israel city during the so-called 12-day war, including one just hours before the ceasefire kicked in. Furious Iran traded blows with Israel for days after Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed an audacious blitz on the regime's prized nuclear sites. Homes and even a hospital were blasted in Be'er Sheva in return by Iran - leaving at least four killed and dozens injured. Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reservist Maj. Neta told The Sun: "We didn't suspect [Iran would hit civilian areas], that was a surprise for us. "We only hit military targets and they hit a civilian hospital - it was awful. "We are here to save lives, and they are just trying to hurt us." West now on red alert for 'homegrown terror attacks' as Iran calls for Trump to be 'crucified' In the early hours of July 19, Soroka hospital was among eight sites pounded by missiles in what was branded an "act of terrorism" by Israel's health minister Uriel Buso. Terrified patients were evacuated as ceilings collapsed, windows smashed and walls caved in. Maj. Neta said: "There was a lot of mess, a lot of innocent people that we needed to move because it was dangerous. We had a fire there and a lot of wreckage. "Luckily nobody was killed there, but easily could have been. "There were people we had to pull out the wreckage, but I'm happy it ended up with only the building damaged but no souls lost. Shocking footage showed the ground shale and huge plumes of smoke filled the air as the busy hospital was struck. "There was a lot of mess, a lot of innocent people that we needed to move because it was dangerous," Maj. Neta said. "We had a fire there and a lot of wreckage. "Luckily nobody was killed there, but easily could have been. "There were people we had to pull out of the wreckage, but I'm happy it ended up with only the building damaged with no souls lost." 13 13 13 But when a salvo of missiles slammed into more civilian targets days later - just hours before the ceasefire came into force on July 24. Corporal Eitan Zachs, 18, his mother, Michal Zachs, 50, his girlfriend Noa Boguslavsky, 18, from Arad, and Naomi Shaanan were killed. At least 22 others were injured as the rockets hit the area at around 6am - including one that directly pummeled a residential building. Cpt. Yehudit said: "Those first moments are a really big mess. People are in shock, there are many rescue teams in the zone. "We had to take the bodies of killed civilians from the apartments that got hit. "We had to break the bricks and the doors down to get them out. We also had a lot of civilians who got hurt. "[After dealing with casualties] we then check every building four times to make sure there is nobody in there, even pets. "From one building we rescued four cats, and returned them to their owners. Iran exacts revenge on its own people by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) IRAN'S ruthless regime massacred defenceless inmates at a prison before blaming their deaths on shrapnel from airstrikes, insiders revealed. It comes as sources warn the wounded regime is using the smokescreen of conflict to unleash a brutal execution spree and crack down on critics. Cold-blooded regime dictators have also ordered the arrest of hundreds after accusing them of having links to arch-foe Israel. Iran 's intelligence services detained at least 26 people accusing them of collaborating with the enemy - and three prisoners were hanged for allegedly spying for Israel. Iranian insiders told The Sun supreme leader Ali Khamenei is following a "disturbing pattern" of enforcing bloody clampdowns during periods of unrest. It comes as the chorus of voices calling for the Ayatollah's callous regime to be toppled grows louder following a monumental effort from Israel and the US to blitz critical nuclear sites. An Iranian insider said: "The prison massacre now stands as another stain on Tehran's human rights record - and a sobering reminder of what unchecked tyranny can unleash behind closed walls." "It's hard work. It takes a lot of time. In my zone, we took nearly 13 hours to make sure nobody was there until we could leave the scene." Maj. Neta said their response after a missile strike can take hours - and squads will even do checks on apartments for casualties even if just a window is broken. She added: "There was a lot of panic and confusion but they [civilians] were happy to see us. "It is a relief for them to see soldiers coming to rescue them and help them. "After that there's a lot of rage, because they need a lot of stuff from their house, and the building is not safe. "We have engineers that check the buildings before we allow civilians inside." Both Maj. Neta and Capt. Yehudit agreed they have to detach from their emotions to get their jobs done effectively. Capt Yehudit said: "The last hit that we dealt with was just before the ceasefire. 13 13 13 "So at the end of the day, everybody spoke about how it was the ceasefire and we could go home in a couple of days. "It wasn't less hard dealing with the scene, knowing that just a few hours ago I pulled bodies from this now I'm going home, back to my day job, to my family and my daughter." Maj. Neta added: "We have to detach when we are getting to a scene because we cannot do our job if we are not detached. "But then after we speak to one another and we take everything out. "It's very important to speak about it and not keep it inside." Israel and Iran have been locked in a fragile ceasefire since June 24 - which Donald Trump has warned both sides not to break. It comes after days of missile fire between the two nations before Trump pulled the trigger on a monumental US blitz of the rogue state. Israel's rescue teams fear Iran could launch further strikes - but insist they are prepared. Maj. Neta added: "We don't know if Iran will strike again. [If they do], we will come and do our job, as we did this time. "But I hope very, very much they will not do it because we are only innocent people. "It's very difficult for us to lose a life. They don't care about that." 13
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Not even Trump can stand in Netanyahu's way
Payback will be the sentiment uppermost in Donald Trump's mind when he hosts the Israeli premier in Washington this week. In return for providing vital military support for Israel's military assault on Iran's nuclear programme, Trump will expect Benjamin Netanyahu's unequivocal support for his Gaza ceasefire plan. The Israeli military may have carried out a highly impressive operation to destroy and degrade Iran's key nuclear facilities, as well as liquidating several top nuclear scientists and commanders in the regime's intelligence and security establishment, but not even the Israelis could summon the firepower to take out two of Iran's key nuclear targets, the underground enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow. Trump's decision, therefore, to authorise US air strikes against the heavily-fortified compounds, using fourteen 30,000lb Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPS) to destroy the facilities, provided a vital boost to the Israeli offensive. And even though the jury is still out about how much damage the Americans inflicted on Iran's nuclear programme – there are already suggestions that Iran has resumed work on enriching uranium – Trump clearly believes his military contribution helped the Israelis to achieve their military objectives in Operation Rising Lion, their codename for the Iran attack. Now, having forced Tehran and Jerusalem to observe a ceasefire, Trump has turned his attention to Gaza. This is a president who, after all, has set his sights on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Ending the war in Gaza – together with resolving the conflict in Ukraine – have been two of Trump's main foreign policy objectives since returning to the White House. While his efforts in Ukraine have been frustrated by Putin's marked lack of interest in a ceasefire, the White House has enjoyed a modicum of success in Gaza, where it did succeed in establishing a short-lived break in the fighting earlier this year. The most notable elements of that deal were the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and the easing of humanitarian aid for Gaza's battered civilian population. The ceasefire collapsed at the end of March amid mutual recriminations, with Israel resuming its military offensive against Hamas terrorists. Buoyed by his successful intervention in the Israel-Iran conflict, Trump believes now is the time to strike a new ceasefire deal, which would be based on similar terms to the previous agreement implemented earlier this year. In return for the staggered release of Israeli hostages – both dead and alive – hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed from Israeli jails, aid supplies will resume and Israel will be expected to begin a phased withdrawal from territory it has occupied in the enclave. While Netanyahu can be expected to accept the hostages-for-prisoners formula, and ease aid restrictions, he will be more resistant to the notion of any military withdrawal from Gaza so long as any vestige remains intact. Thus, while Trump has sought to pre-empt the outcome of his meeting with Netanyahu by announcing that Israel has already agreed to the 'necessary conditions' to finalise a 60-day ceasefire, there will nonetheless be concerns at the White House that the Israeli premier will not be prepared to commit to any form of military withdrawal until Hamas's presence in Gaza has been fully eradicated. This was Israel's key military objective in the wake of the October 7 attacks in 2023, and remains so to this day. While the US and Israel have forged an effective alliance in combatting Iran's nuclear infrastructure, on a personal level tensions remain between Trump and Netanyahu, who have not always enjoyed the easiest of relationships. Trump has privately accused Netanyahu of being ungrateful for the backing he receives from Washington, especially after the key role Trump played during his first term negotiating the Abraham Accords, which saw several Arab states normalise relations with Israel. These tensions memorably erupted in public after Trump accused both Israel and Iran of breaching the ceasefire terms he arranged at the end of the Iran conflict in June, claiming that they 'don't know what the f*** they are doing'. Using expletives to describe Iran's conduct is nothing new for Trump – he used the F-word about Iran in 2020. But using it in relation to a country that is supposed to be one of Washington's closest allies showed that not even Netanyahu is immune from Trump's temper tantrums. The risk of upsetting Trump, and provoking one of his famous Oval Office outbursts, will therefore be one of Netanyahu's foremost concerns during his Washington visit, as will be his desire to ensure that he ultimately achieves his goal of destroying Hamas in Gaza. One important consequence of the US-Israel military attack on Iran is that Tehran is no longer in a position to maintain its support for Hamas's terrorist activities, placing the terrorist organisation in its weakest position since the October 7 attacks. With Hamas on the ropes, Netanyahu will remain committed to achieving his ultimate goal of destroying the organisation once and for all, even if it means upsetting his White House host.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘Our days are full of hardship': people in Gaza barely dare to hope for success in ceasefire talks
In Gaza City on Sunday morning, there was only one topic of conversation: the possibility of peace. In the half ruined town, as across the entire territory, few took their eyes off their phones, a television or better informed relatives or friends for more than a few minutes. Um Fadi Ma'rouf, from the now ruined town of Beit Lahia in the far north of Gaza, said she was encouraged by the positive response from Hamas to the most recent US-sponsored proposal of terms for a deal. 'I think this means it will happen. I really hope it goes through because this situation has exhausted us,' said the 50year-old, who has been forced to move nine times during the conflict. Israel has so far rejected Hamas's demands for changes to a 14-point draft agreement circulated last week but on Sunday despatched a negotiating team to Qatar for indirect talks. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is scheduled to meet Donald Trump, who is thought to hope to announce a ceasefire himself, in Washington on Monday evening local time. In Gaza City, the mood was tense and subdued. In the early morning, barefoot children with torn clothes and dirty faces walked the cracked streets carried pots in search of food or scavenged for rubbish that could be used as fuel. Later, many of those living in stifling tents headed to the coast in search of respite from soaring temperatures. 'From time to time, we hear airstrikes, but they are very far away and barely audible,' one Gaza City resident told the Guardian. 'We haven't seen any planes but a warship came very close to the shore but caused no trouble. It didn't open fire.' There have been two previous ceasefires in Gaza, one in November 2023, and a second this year which came into effect in January but collapsed in March when Israel reneged on a promise to move to a second phase which might have led to a definitive end to the conflict. A new Israeli offensive followed and an 11-week total blockade that led to almost the entire population facing the threat of famine. The near 21-month war was triggered by a Hamas raid into Israel in October 2023 in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostages. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, of whom more than half are thought to be dead. The ensuing Israeli offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population multiple times and killed more than 57,000, mostly civilians. Ma'rouf said: 'During the last truce, I never expected the war to return. When it did, it was a tragic feeling – indescribable. I lost my sister in this war, along with around 20 other members of my extended family. My greatest fear is losing someone else from my family – one of my children, my siblings, or close relatives.' Nineteen-year-old Shahd Ashour, whose sister's fiance was killed just before the last ceasefire was announced, said she too was remaining cautious. 'My biggest fear now is that the news of the ceasefire turns out to be false – just rumours – and the war and killings continue. I still have hope, but only a little,' she said. Many children share such fears. Lama Al-Mubayyed, 12, told the Guardian she was scared of being 'torn apart, killed, paralysed or losing a limb'. 'I was so happy during the last ceasefire. We felt a bit safe. But when the war returned, I cried a lot because it meant going back to the suffering of tents, the summer heat, and repeated displacement,' Mubayyed said. Aid officials in Gaza said on Saturday that supplies of fuel, essential to run the generators that are the primary source of power in the territory, are now close to being exhausted. Without fresh deliveries, they said, humanitarian operations will collapse, the few remaining hospitals will be unable to function and communications will be cut off. 'We are hopeful about a ceasefire of course, but we need to know how much aid is going to get in and how fast, and who will be able to distribute it. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered,' one humanitarian official in Deir al-Balah said. In recent weeks the flow of aid into Gaza has varied, though it has been little more than a fraction of what is needed, UN officials said. Hundreds have died seeking food from looted trucks or a small number of distribution hubs. Prices for the limited basics available in the few markets vary wildly from day to day, though remain far too high for almost all in the territory to afford. On Sunday, a kilo of flour was selling for the equivalent of $10, a kilo of lentils for $12 and a kilo of rice or pasta for $14. 'The greatest hardship we're facing now – myself and everyone in Gaza – is finding food and water each day,' said Adel Sharaf, 18, who is from Beit Lahia but is now living in a tent after his home was destroyed. Many in Gaza are bracing themselves for bad news. Ahmad, from the al-Shujaiya neighbourhood that has been almost entirely destroyed in repeated Israeli military operations, said he was pessimistic 'because everyone was lying'. 'Every week they hear about a possible ceasefire, and then it falls apart. This is always what happens, just like in previous times,' the 35-year-old said. Abu Adham Abu Amro, 55, said he was afraid to hope because he had already lost 25 family members in the conflict. 'We pray to God that the ceasefire succeeds this time. Our days are full of hardship – struggling to access water and food, dealing with a shortage of resources, and the rise in prices,' Abu Amro, who is from Gaza City, said. 'Right now, I have no fears other than the possibility that the ceasefire won't happen this time.'
