Israel guns down at least 25 Palestinians who were seeking aid
'Give them the opportunity to leave. First, from combat zones, and also from the strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with Israeli TV station i24 to discuss the planned offensive in areas that include Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people shelter. 'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.'
Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were shot on their way to aid distribution sites or while awaiting convoys entering Gaza.
Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met yesterday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.
Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, Mr Netanyahu's office said.
Israel's plans to widen its military offensive against Hamas to parts of Gaza it does not yet control have sparked condemnation at home and abroad, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire.
The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 are still alive. Families fear a new offensive endangers them.
When asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal, Mr Netanyahu responded that he wanted all hostages back, alive and dead.
Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to disarm.
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Among those killed while seeking aid were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to staff at Nasser hospital.
Hashim Shamalah said Israeli troops fired toward them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said.
Israeli gunfire killed five other Palestinians while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The Israeli military said it wasn't aware of any casualties from Israeli fire in that area.
GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites yesterday. The US and Israel support GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they claim allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.
Aid convoys from other groups travel within 100 metres of GHF sites and draw crowds. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those convoys, the GHF said.
Israeli fire killed at least six other people waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said.
The Israeli military said yesterday that it killed last week a Hamas militant who took part in the 2023 attack that started the war. It blamed Abdullah Saeed Abd al-Baqin for participating in the abduction of three Israeli hostages.
The Hamas-led attack abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
An Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian yesterday in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks towards an off-duty soldier and another person carrying out 'engineering works' near the village of Duma, lightly wounding them.
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Irish Independent
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