Hamas must accept hostage deal or be ‘annihilated', warns Israeli defence minister – Middle East crisis live
Update:
Date: 2025-05-31T08:10:07.000Z
Title: Israel threatens Hamas with 'annihilation' as Trump says Gaza ceasefire 'very close'
Content: Israel has said Hamas must accept a hostage deal in Gaza or 'be annihilated', as Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire agreement was 'very close'.
It comes amid dire conditions on the ground, with the United Nations warning that Gaza's entire population was at risk of famine.
Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported that on Friday, defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas must agree to a ceasefire proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff or be destroyed, after the Palestinian militant group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands. However, Hamas said it was still considering the text.
'The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the 'Witkoff deal' for the release of the hostages – or be annihilated,' said Katz.
Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March after a short-lived truce.
In the US, the Trump told reporters 'they're very close to an agreement on Gaza', adding: 'We'll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow.'
Meanwhile, food shortages in Gaza persist, with aid only trickling in after the partial lifting by Israel of a more than two-month blockade.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), called Gaza 'the hungriest place on Earth'. He said:
It's the only defined area – a country or defined territory within a country – where you have the entire population at risk of famine.
In other developments:
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), has described the difficulties faced by the UN in delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as an 'an operational straitjacket'. Laerke said the mission to deliver aid was 'in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history'. Once truckloads entered Gaza, they were often 'swarmed by desperate people', he said.
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after media reported that Arab ministers planning to attend had been stopped from coming. The delegation included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said.
Israeli airstrikes have struck western Syria, the Israeli military and Syrian state media have said, and reportedly one civilian has been killed in the first such attack on the country in nearly a month. 'A strike from Israeli occupation aircraft targeted sites close to the village of Zama in the Jableh countryside south of Latakia,' state television said.
Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable', reiterating the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. Iran has held five rounds of talks with the US in search of a new nuclear agreement to replace the deal with major powers Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The commander of Kurdish forces that control northeast Syria said on Friday that his group is in direct contact with Turkey and that he would be open to improving ties, including by meeting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
17 minutes ago
- The Sun
Gary Lineker's bitter feud with BBC worsens as final interview with Mo Salah BLOCKED amid fear pair ‘would discuss Gaza'
BBC chiefs delivered a final snub to Gary Lineker when they axed his last interview without warning — just before his final Match of the Day. He was due to talk to Liverpool goal hero Mo Salah, but there were fears Lineker — involved in an online row over an antisemitic post — would say something controversial about Gaza. 3 3 A source said the plug was pulled by director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski, who got the job last summer. The Sun has revealed there was 'no love lost' between Lineker and Kay-Jelski — with the ex-England hero allegedly giving him the cold shoulder at the FA Cup final. An insider said: 'The plan was for the interview to be shown across the BBC the weekend of Gary's final Match Of The Day. 'That would include on Football Focus the day before as well as online and on social media. 'Out of nowhere, it got cancelled. "Some people think they didn't want Gary and Mo to talk about Gaza. 'Salah has spoken out in his support for Palestinians living in Gaza and Gary has made his feelings clear too. "It felt like it may have come up naturally in conversation. 'It seems they axed it rather than risk possible editorial issues. "They'd only just overcome one storm so to face another would have been a nightmare.' The Sun revealed Gary, 64, was l eaving the BBC after 26 years following his sharing of an Instagram post which criticised Zionism. It included an illustration of a rat — historically used as an antisemitic slur. With the BBC coming under increasingly intense pressure, Lineker issued two apologies, then agreed to step down from his £1.3million-a-year job The ex-Spurs star is understood to be focusing on his Goalhanger Podcasts business, as well as considering rival broadcasters' offers. He had been suspended from Match Of The Day in March 2023 after a post about the small boats controversy, but was reinstated after a boycott by his co-stars. The BBC said: 'The interview was cancelled because it was planned to air after Gary's last Match of the Day. 'It would be wrong to suggest anything else.' However a source insisted: 'A cross-platform interview with the Champions' star player could have aired anytime. "Salah wanted to speak to Gary so to axe it entirely seems short-sighted.' 3
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Israel denies firing at civilians after Hamas-run health ministry claimed 31 Palestinians were killed on way to aid centre in Gaza
Israel has denied an attack on civilians near a Gaza aid centre as 31 were killed and more than 170 people were injured. The Palestinians were on their way to receive food at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hub - a new aid organisation backed by Israel and the US - according to health officials and multiple witnesses. The witnesses said Israeli tanks opened fire on crowds around 1,000 yards from the new aid site. It was the deadliest incident yet around the new aid distribution system, which has operated for less than a week. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) strongly denied the attack was against Palestinians and urged people not to believe 'rumours' and 'fake news '. Spokesperson BG Effie Defrin said in a video posted on X: 'I'm here in the city of Rafah. So far we have opened four distribution centres. 'We have already distributed over 16,000 packages of food to the people. Hamas is doing its best to stop us from doing so. It is spreading rumours and fake news. I urge you not to believe every rumour spread by Hamas. We will investigate every one of those incidents.' Israel's military said that its forces did not fire at civilians near or within the site, adding troops fired warning shots at several suspects advancing towards them a kilometre from the site. 'I urge you not believe every rumor spread by Hamas.' IDF Spokesperson BG Effie Defrin directly from Rafah, on the humanitarian aid situation: — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 1, 2025 The health ministry said in a statement it delivered aid 'without incident' and dismissed what it described as 'false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos'. It has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent media has no access. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its field hospital in the southern city of Rafah received 179 casualties including women and children, 21 of them declared dead upon arrival, the majority with gunshot or shrapnel wounds. 'All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site,' the ICRC said, calling it the highest number of 'weapon-wounded' people in a single incident since the hospital was set up more than a year ago. 'Aid distribution has become a death trap,' the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement. Multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's sites. Before today, 17 people were killed while trying to reach the sites, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department. The foundation says private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on the crowds. Israel's military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles. Thousands of people headed towards the distribution site in southern Gaza hours before dawn. As they approached, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, around 1km away, at around 3am, Israeli forces opened fire, the witnesses said. 'There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,' said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd. He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded to a field hospital. 'The scene was horrible,' he said. Most people were shot 'in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest,' said Dr Marwan al-Hams, a health ministry official at Nasser Hospital, where many wounded were transferred from the Red Cross-run field hospital. He said 24 people were being treated in Nasser Hospital's intensive care unit. A colleague, surgeon Khaled al-Ser, later said 150 wounded people had arrived, along with 28 bodies. Ibrahim Abu Saoud, another witness, said the military fired from about 300 metres away. He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died at the scene. 'We weren't able to help him,' he said. Mohammed Abu Teaima, 33, said he saw Israeli forces open fire and kill his cousin and a woman as they headed towards the distribution site. He said his cousin was shot in his chest, and his brother-in-law was among the wounded. 'They opened heavy fire directly toward us,' he said. A reporter arrived at the field hospital at around 6am and saw dozens of wounded, including women and children. The witness also saw crowds of people returning from the distribution point. Some carried boxes of aid but most appeared to be empty-handed. Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 31 people were killed and more than 170 were wounded. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the coastal territory. 'It's essentially engineered scarcity,' Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the UN humanitarian office, said last week. The UN system has struggled to bring in aid after Israel slightly eased its nearly three-month blockade of the territory last month. The groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza's roughly two million Palestinians. Experts have warned that the territory is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The latest efforts at ceasefire talks appeared to stumble on Saturday when Hamas said it had sought amendments to a US ceasefire proposal that Israel had approved, and the US envoy called that 'unacceptable'.
Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Massachusetts high schooler, 18, arrested by ICE on his way to volleyball practice leaves community reeling
A Massachusetts community has been left shocked and angry after a high schooler was arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers while on his way to volleyball practice. The unidentified 18-year-old, described by his coach as an 'exceptional citizen,' was detained by officers Saturday morning after being pulled over in a car with his teammates. The Milford High School junior never made it to practice as his coach Andrew Mainini said he received a text around 8.30am from a student who witnessed the athlete get arrested. Mainini said two other students who were inside the vehicle at the time were released by ICE officers because they were minors. The details surrounding his arrest remain unclear. 'I was sitting there thinking, "This can't be happening",' Manini told NBC Boston. 'I'm a person who watches a decent amount of news and it's one thing to see things happening in the world. It's another to have them directly impact the people you work with and care for on a daily basis.' The teen's coach isn't the only one who's been left confused and frustrated by his sudden arrest, as Governor Maura Healey expressed the same emotions, and even called out President Donald Trump about it. 'I'm demanding immediate answers from ICE about the arrest of a Milford High School student yesterday, where he is and how his due process is being protected,' she posted on X. 'The Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it's making us all less safe.' This is not the first time ICE officers have swooped into the town as Superintendent Kevin McIntrye said arrests have been ramping up in their area. 'An 18 year old Milford High School student was detained by ICE agents off campus this weekend. We have also had a number of parents who have been detained by ICE in recent weeks,' he said. 'We are all distraught by this news.' The teen's friend, who wished to remain anonymous, described the moment he watched him get arrested when three undercover vehicles stopped them that morning. 'An ICE officer had stepped out of his vehicle, walked over to us, and knocked on the window,' he told WRPI. 'And they asked him what his documentation was. I didn't see him run a red light or do anything illegal, we were just on our way.' Now, his friend is fearful of what this could mean for him, adding: 'I've known this to be a system that kicks out undocumented people for committing crimes, and now it's a system that will just kick you out based on your status.' Milford Police Chief Robert Tusino confirmed the arrest, but said his department was not involved in the operation. Meanwhile, McIntyre has promised to stand by the community and 'do everything in our power to support our students and families during these difficult times.' 'They are members of the community, students in our classrooms, athletes that compete representing Milford, musicians, artists, friends and neighbors,' he continued. A peaceful protest has been arranged for Sunday at Town Hall, NBC Boston reported. contacted ICE for comment but did not immediately hear back. This is just the latest in the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal migrants in the US. In early May, a college student was arrested and taken to an ICE detention center after she made an improper turn at a red light in Georgia. Ximena Arias-Cristobal has lived in the state since she was four, but due to local law enforcement's strict coordination with ICE, she was quickly transported to the Stewart Detention Center after making the illegal turn. The 19-year-old student was chained by her wrists and ankles as she was taken into the facility. After being pulled over, Arias-Cristobal told the police officer she had an international license - but not with her. Online records show that she was arrested for driving without a valid license and failure to obey traffic control devices. A couple weeks after her arrest, the Mexican-born student was granted a $1,500 bond during an immigration hearing - the lowest amount permitted by law, ABC News reported. The government did not wish to appeal,' Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal's attorney, said in a statement, as reported by the outlet. 'The family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest,' he added. However, the Department of Homeland Security has stated that it remains committed to ordering the teenager to 'self-deport' back to Mexico, citing the absence of any pending applications with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 'Both father and daughter were in this country illegally and they have to face the consequences,' DHS said in a statement to X. Two weeks before the teen's arrest, her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was detained by ICE agents after being stopped by police for speeding and driving without a license. He was released from custody on bond.
