Latest news with #HamasOfficial
Al Arabiya
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
BBC says Gaza documentary breached accuracy guidelines, but finds no bias
A BBC documentary about children's lives in Gaza narrated by the 13-year-old son of a Hamas official breached its editorial guidelines on accuracy, an internal review by the British public broadcaster said on Monday. The investigation, however, found there were no other breaches of the BBC's editorial guidelines, including on impartiality, and no evidence that outside interests 'inappropriately impacted on the program.' The BBC removed 'Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone' from its online platform in February, five days after it was broadcast, saying it had 'serious flaws.' The documentary was made by independent production company HOYO Films. A review found the program breached a guideline on accuracy that deals with misleading audiences. The background on the narrator's father — a minister in the Hamas-run government in Gaza — was 'critical information,' which was not shared with the BBC before broadcast, the review found. Gaza's health ministry says more than 58,000 people have been killed since the start of the war on Oct. 7 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. The BBC's coverage of the war has been heavily scrutinized throughout the conflict, with both supporters of Israel and its critics saying the broadcaster had failed to strike the right balance. 'Regardless of how the significance or otherwise of the Narrator's father's position was judged, the audience should have been informed about this,' said the report by Peter Johnston, BBC Director of Editorial Complaints and Reviews. BBC Director-General Tim Davie said the report identified a significant failing in relation to accuracy. 'We will now take action on two fronts – fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated,' Davie said in a statement.
The National
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Hamas says 'positively engaging' but fate of Gaza ceasefire lies in US-Israel talks
Hamas officials said the group is positively engaging with mediators, but the fate of a Gaza ceasefire lies in US-Israel talks. US President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House next week to press him for an end to the war in Gaza. "We are engaging positively with the mediators. What matters to us is stopping the aggression and the massacres. We hope something positive will happen on this front," a Beirut-based Hamas official said. "The problem lies with Netanyahu and his government, which does not respond to the mediators' calls to halt the aggression, release the prisoners, allow aid into Gaza, and withdraw," added the official. In Washington, Mr Trump is likely to tell Mr Netanyahu that the war, now more than 20 months old, can no longer continue, sources in the US said on Monday. "Netanyahu is ready to discuss a ceasefire, because the military and political objectives of the war have long been achieved," one of the sources explained. A second Hamas official stated that "the Israelis and Americans are discussing matters among themselves. We are waiting for what will come out of those discussions". "There are positive signals from the Israelis and Americans, but there is no reliance on Trump, given his historical positions on Hamas, which are far from promising," he added. The war in Gaza started after a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed more than 56,500 Palestinians in Gaza and reduced most of the coastal strip to rubble. food aid and supplies.
Arab News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Hamas says Gaza ceasefire talks ‘intensified in recent hours'
GAZA: A senior Hamas official told AFP Wednesday that talks for a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group 'intensified in recent hours' with mediator countries.'Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,' Taher Al-Nunu said, adding that the group had 'not yet received any new proposals' to bring an end to the war now in its 21st month.
ABC News
31-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Israel accepts US truce over Gaza
Israel accepts the United States' proposed truce, while a Hamas official says it does not meet the group's demands, the plan is still under review. The partial agreement comes almost 150 days after the last ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, and in that time aid entering the Gaza Strip has been incredibly low.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel says open to deal that includes 'ending the fighting' in Gaza
Israel signalled Sunday that it was open to striking a deal with Hamas that included "ending the fighting" in Gaza, where rescuers reported dozens killed a day after Israel stepped up its offensive. Israel's military has said the expansion of its campaign is aimed at "achieving all the war's objectives" including releasing hostages and "the defeat of Hamas". But as the intensified operations got underway, Israel and Hamas were entering indirect talks in Qatar that the Palestinian group said were aimed at ending the war. In a statement on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that "even at this very moment, the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal -- whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting," referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff who has been involved in previous discussions. Such a deal, according to Netanyahu's statement, "would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip". Ever since a two-month ceasefire fell apart in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to reach a breakthrough. Netanyahu has opposed ending the war without Hamas's total defeat, while Hamas has balked at the prospect of handing over its weapons. Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said on Saturday that the talks in Doha had kicked off "without any preconditions from either side". A Hamas source familiar with the negotiations said that "positions are being exchanged by both sides in an attempt at bridging perspectives", adding the group was approaching the talks with "great flexibility". - 'No one left' - On the ground, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Sunday that 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip. AFPTV footage showed people sifting through the wreckage of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded. At a hospital in nearby Khan Yunis city, young men mourned over the shrouded bodies of loved ones laid out on the ground outside. "All my family members are gone. There is no one left," said a distraught Warda al-Shaer standing amid the wreckage in Al-Mawasi. "The children were killed as well as their parents. My mother died too, and my niece lost her eye." Bassal said that the "series of violent Israeli air strikes" across Gaza overnight and in the early morning resulted in a total of "at least 33 martyrs, more than half of whom were children". There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel's intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to a blockade on aid imposed on March 2. UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, said he was "alarmed" at the escalation and called for "a permanent ceasefire, now". The summit's final statement urged the international community "to exert pressure to end the bloodshed". - Hospitals 'out of service' - In Tel Aviv, demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday to protest against Netanyahu's government and demand it strike a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages. "Instead of bringing them all home by agreeing to the deal that is on the table, Netanyahu is dragging us into a needless political war that will lead to the death of the hostages and soldiers," said protester Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead. Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine. On Sunday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza accused Israel of laying siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, where it said "a state of panic and confusion is prevailing". The ministry later said Israel had cut off the arrival of patients and staff, "effectively forcing the hospital out of service". With "the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service", it said. Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,339. az-smw/ami
