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Gaza latest: Hamas sets condition for getting aid to hostages after 'appalling' video sparks international outcry

Gaza latest: Hamas sets condition for getting aid to hostages after 'appalling' video sparks international outcry

Sky News2 days ago
08:24:02
US ambassador claims 'massive amounts of food' going into Gaza
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said that the "real story of starvation in Gaza" is of "hostages being held by Hamas".
In a disputed claim on X, the US ambassador questioned why the "massive amounts of food" going into Gaza was not being shared by the "very well fed" Hamas members.
He shared a graphic that stated "there is no policy of starvation in Gaza," and that "Israel does not limit the amount of aid entering Gaza" and has, in the past, facilitated the entry of up to 700 aid trucks per day, depending on UN and NGO supply.
It should be noted here that humanitarian organisations have said the amount of aid that has entered the enclave is not enough.
Some have said the hunger crisis in Gaza worsened in March after Israel imposed a blockade barring the entry of aid into Gaza - this came during its ceasefire with Hamas.
In May, Israel lifted the blockade, but for months, only a limited amount of aid has been entering the enclave.
07:55:57
Trump insists 'we want the people fed' in Gaza
As he touched down in Pennsylvania yesterday after a weekend break, Donald Trump spoke to reporters about Gaza and its food crisis.
Asked if he had an update on Gaza, the US president said: "Only we want the people fed. And we're the only country that's really doing that.
"We're putting up money to get the people fed."
Trump said he wanted Israel "to get them fed" and the US was "giving some pretty big contributions" to purchase food.
Last week US special envoy Steve Witkoff visited a food distribution site in the Gaza Strip operated by an Israeli-backed American contractor.
Witkoff and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, toured a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, which has been almost completely destroyed and is now a largely depopulated Israeli military zone.
The envoy said he had spent more than five hours inside Gaza in order to gain "a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza".
07:48:14
Hamas 'ready to deliver aid to hostages' if Israel opens humanitarian corridors
As we just reported Hamas has said it is ready to deliver Red Cross aid to the hostages it is holding in Gaza if Israel opens humanitarian corridors permanently and halts "all forms of air traffic" during the delivery of packages to the hostages.
Abu Obeidah, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam brigades - an armed wing of Hamas- said yesterday the militant group "do not deliberately starve the captives" and "they eat from what our fighters and all our people eat".
He said in order to respond to any request from the Red Cross to bring food and medicine to hostages humanitarian corridors would need to be opened "in a normal and permanent manner".
Obeidah also said the group required "the cessation of enemy aerial sorties of all kinds during the times when the parcels for the captives are being received".
"The Al-Qassam brigades do not deliberately starve the captives, but they eat from what our fighters and all our people eat, and they will not receive any special privileges amid the crime of starvation and siege," he said in a statement.
Prior to the statement, Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken with the Red Cross's regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.
Netanyahu said he told Lerisson that the "lie of starvation propagated by Hamas is spreading worldwide", adding that "systematic starvation" is being carried out against Israeli hostages.
07:39:49
Welcome back to our coverage
We're back with our coverage of the war in Gaza this morning.
Yesterday, Hamas said it was ready to cooperate with any requests from the Red Cross to deliver food to Israeli hostages in Gaza.
It came after Benjamin Netanyahu accused the militant group of carrying out "systematic starvation" against Israeli captives after Hamas released a video of an emaciated hostage being held in a concrete tunnel.
Netanyahu said he had spoken with the regional head of the Red Cross and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.
Here are the other key lines from the last 24 hours:
Hospitals in Gaza said 33 more Palestinians seeking food aid were killed by Israeli fire;
The United Nations Security Council said it will hold a special discussion on the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Tuesday morning;
Efforts to bring Gazan children to the UK for urgent medical treatment are set to be accelerated under new UK government plans. The scheme is reportedly set to be announced within weeks.
You can read more on that story here...
22:50:01
We're pausing our live coverage
Thanks for following our live coverage of the war in Gaza.
We'll be back tomorrow with all the latest updates, but until then, here's a rundown of the key stories from the last 24 hours:
Hamas says it'll allow the Red Cross to bring aid to Israeli hostages in Gaza if Israel permanently opens up humanitarian corridors in the enclave;
It comes after Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Red Cross to deliver aid to hostage s after seeing videos of emaciated hostages over the weekend;
Those videos drew sharp international condemnation, including from France's Emmanuel Macron, David Lammy and others;
Meanwhile, deliveries of aid continued to be airdropped into Gaza. Israel's military said 136 packages were parachuted in by six different countries today;
But, on the ground, hospital officials said at least 33 more Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while seeking foo d in Gaza;
And the Hamas-run health ministry said six adults had died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours;
Elsewhere, Israel's far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, drew criticism from Arab nations for violating a decades-old arrangement by praying at a holy site in Jerusalem;
While the IDF says it's looking into reports that an Israeli attack on the Gaza HQ of the Palestinian Red Crescent killed one staff member and injured others.
22:40:01
Hamas official: October 7 attacks 'forced the world' into recognising Palestinian statehood
A senior member of Hamas's political bureau says the wave of Western nations moving to recognise a Palestinian state is the "overall outcome" of the group's October 7 terror attack on Israel.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ghazi Hamad said the deadly attack, which saw Hamas and other militant groups kill over 1,200 people and take hostages back to Gaza, "forced the world to open its eyes to the Palestinian cause".
He added: "Why are all these countries recognising Palestine now? Had any country dared to recognise the state of Palestine prior to October 7?"
France, the UK and Canada have all recently announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly next month.
The Israeli government has rejected the calls, describing them as tantamount to rewarding terrorism.
22:15:01
Watch: Doctor describes 'carnage' at Gaza hospital
Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Waseem Saeed had told Sky News that the plans to bring injured Gaza children to the UK for treatment are a "mere drop in the ocean".
Under the scheme, reportedly set to be announced within weeks, up to 300 children could arrive in the UK from Gaza.
Dr Saeed says he's received updates from doctors at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza showing children with burn injuries left on the floor as "they've completely run out of beds".
He says "every part" of the medical infrastructure in Gaza has been "dismantled and is deficient".
"Until that's addressed, while this is welcome, it's not going to have a serious impact on the carnage that is occurring at the moment."
21:45:01
Exclusive: Gaza's deadliest days linked by a pattern of attacks on families
Data shared exclusively with Sky News by Gaza's health ministry allows us, for the first time, to show the date of every death since the war began.
Across almost two years of war, 17 days stand out as the deadliest – those when more than 450 people died.
Women and children made up a much higher share of deaths on these days than on others.
Looking further into the data, we found out why – a pattern of strikes on family homes.
Almost half of all people killed on these days (44%) died alongside a family member, compared with less than a third (30%) on other days.
Strikes on families reached their peak on 18 March, accounting for almost two-thirds of all deaths.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas, but most of those killed were women and children.
In order to understand how those strikes led to so many civilian casualties, Sky News analysed all 465 deaths recorded that day by Gaza's health ministry.
21:15:02
Arab world condemns Israeli 'desecration' at Jerusalem mosque
Iran has joined Jordan and Saudi Arabia in its outrage after Israel's far-right security minister violated a long-standing agreement by praying at one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East.
Itamar Ben-Gvir conducted a Jewish prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem this morning, breaking a long-time arrangement between Israel and the Arab world.
Jews are forbidden from prayer at the east Jerusalem site under a "status quo" agreement made between Israel and Jordan in 1967.
Jordan condemned Ben-Gvir's prayer as "an unacceptable provocation, and a reprehensible escalation".
This evening, Iran's foreign ministry says Ben-Gvir "desecrated" the holy site, claiming the far-right Israeli minister was seeking to "alter the Islamic and historical identity of Holy Jerusalem" and escalate tensions in Gaza.
20:38:35
UN Security Council to hold special session on Israeli hostages still in Gaza
The United Nations Security Council will hold a special discussion on the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Tuesday morning.
It follows a request by Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar, according to his office.
Sa'ar pushed for the discussion after videos of hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski appearing emaciated were released by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
There are 50 hostages still believed to be in Gaza, of whom Israeli believes 27 are dead. Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are "doubts" about the fate of several more.
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