US proposes 60-day ceasefire for Gaza
By
Samia Nakhoul
and
Hatem Maher
, Reuters
US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 4 February 2025.
Photo:
AFP / Bryan Dozier
A US plan for Gaza seen by Reuters on Friday proposes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages alive and dead in the first week and the release of 125 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
The plan, which said it is guaranteed by US President Donald Trump and mediators Egypt and Qatar, includes sending aid to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the ceasefire agreement.
The plan stipulates that Hamas will release the last 30 hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place.
The White House said on Thursday that Israel has agreed to the US ceasefire proposal.
Destroyed buildings in the northern sector of Gaza on 29 May 2025.
Photo:
JACK GUEZ
The Palestinian militant group Hamas told Reuters it was reviewing the plan and will respond on Friday or Saturday.
Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all 58 hostages still held in Gaza must be returned before it will agree to end the war.
Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the devastating Hamas attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, that killed some 1200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The subsequent Israeli military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say, and left the enclave in ruins.
-Reuters
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Hamas accused of brutal crackdown on protesters in Gaza
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Photo: ABC News The March demonstrations have been described as the largest anti-Hamas rallies since the war in Gaza began, following Hamas' deadly attacks on 7 October, 2023. Palestinians expressed their anguish over the immeasurable devastation wrought by Israeli forces during the war, but laid blame at the feet of Hamas for allowing it to continue. "Out Hamas, out!" the protesters chanted. "The people want the fall of Hamas!" One man, Rafed Rafed Mohammed Atta Al-Radi, was in the crowd as the demonstration erupted. "We are asking Hamas to leave Gaza today, we won't wait any longer," he told the ABC. "We want Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to rule Gaza," he said. Amal Ashraf Al Shafa'a joined the public protests against Hamas. Photo: ABC News "We want him to govern Gaza because Hamas is destroying the people." Despite battling cancer and needing urgent surgery, Amal said she felt she had to join the protest. "I lost my children, so of course I want to demonstrate," she said. "I want to shout, 'no to war, no to war'. Many are talking against the war and nothing happens. "I support peaceful demonstrations asking for the end of the war, it is not wrong. "We ask from the government that will rule to bring safety, security. Our children are hungry - we are very tired." Protests broke out in the days after Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza. Photo: ABC News Since the protests broke out there have been reports of deadly reprisals against those who took to the streets. Amnesty International said it had documented "a disturbing pattern of threats, intimidation and harassment, including interrogations and beatings by Hamas-run security forces against individuals exercising their right to peaceful protest". 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"A warning has been issued - those who ignore it bear full responsibility," the group said. A protester carries a sign that reads "Hamas does not represent us". Photo: ABC News "Let's not forget that Hamas as a movement, as a religious movement - and it's a political religious movement actually - has its own ideology, its own world view and its own way to do things in terms of culture, in terms of social life, and sometimes in terms of political dissent," Dr Hasan Ayoub, assistant professor of politics at An-Najah University in the West Bank, told 7.30 . "Yes, Hamas at some points in Gaza, they practiced their own, let me call it, non-democratic, coercive tactics against political dissent." In recent weeks the Committee to Protect Journalists has published testimony of journalists in Gaza being threatened and assaulted by Hamas for covering protests against the militant group. 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"But I have never heard of a people when, being exposed to genocide and to this terrifying amount of killing, will come out and protest against a liberation movement that is fighting in their favour. "It never happened, not in the Palestinian history, not in any history in the world - so there is something that is not adding up here." A man holds a sign that reads "Enough killing children" at a protest against Hamas. Photo: ABC News Israel has repeatedly said its war in Gaza is against Hamas, and not the Palestinian people. Although the devastating death toll, with more than 54,000 Palestinians now dead, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, showed the heavy civilian cost of the conflict and has led to serious accusations against the Israeli military of indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the strip. Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza to, in its words, pressure Hamas to release the remaining 58 hostages still held captive - only 21 of whom are believed to still be alive. 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The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank wants to unify the two occupied territories under its leadership - something Israel has said should never happen. Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti says his own party needs significant reform. Photo: ABC News / Hamish Harty One of the leading Palestinian opposition politicians said the PA would need significant reform if it was to ever take control of Gaza, and the leading Fatah party would need to allow change. Last year the various Palestinian factions all signed a declaration in Beijing about the future governance of Gaza once the war ended. "They told us that they are ready to accept a national consensus government, which would mainly consist of independents, but a government that would be respected and accepted by all Palestinian parties," Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti told 7.30 . "We concluded that agreement, we signed it - Hamas signed it, Fatah signed it, everybody signed it." Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has been president of the Palestinian Authority since 2005, and elections have not been held since. He recently named a new vice-president, Hussein al-Sheikh - a move seen as appointing a successor. Rival Barghouti insisted that was not good enough to ensure the PA is seen as a legitimate government. "I'm surprised sometimes when people think that appointing somebody in a certain position is reform," he said. "This is not reform, the reform is really when we have the right to have free democratic elections." Barghouti argued the reason Fatah was reluctant to hold elections is because its power would be diluted, but said it must happen for the party to uphold its commitment to the Beijing declaration. "I know the results, how will the results be - it will not be that Hamas will win majority, as some claim, but Fatah also will not get absolute majority," he said. "It will be a pluralistic system. 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Scoop
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Gaza: UN Experts Demand Safe Passage For Freedom Flotilla Coalition
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RNZ News
4 hours ago
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Colorado attack suspect charged with federal hate crime
By Patrick Wingrove and Rich McKay , Reuters A bomb disposal robot sitting on Pearl Street on the site of an attack on demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. Photo: AFP/ELI IMADALI A Colorado man has been charged with a federal hate crime for his alleged role in a gasoline-bomb attack on a pro-Israeli rally in Boulder that injured eight people, according to an affidavit issued by the US Department of Justice on Monday. Mohamed Sabry Soliman was already facing an array of state charges, including attempted murder, after the attack on Sunday in the city of Boulder on a group seeking to draw attention to hostages seized in Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel. US attorney general Pam Bondi said the suspect would be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for what was described as an "antisemitic terror attack". The affidavit, seen by Reuters, said Soliman, 45, had planned the attack for more than a year. Investigators found 14 gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails near where the suspect was detained. The police also found a gasoline canister in his car parked nearby and a weed sprayer filled with gasoline at the scene. Soliman told investigators that he had learned how to make the fire bombs from YouTube. The affidavit references a video posted on social media during the attack showing Soliman "shirtless, pacing back and forth while holding what appear to be Molotov cocktails." The suspect, who was being detained in lieu of $10 million bail (NZ$16.5 million), according to official records, told police he "wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead," the affidavit said. The attack was the latest act of violence aimed at Jewish Americans linked to outrage over Israel's escalating military offensive in Gaza. It followed the fatal shooting of two Israel Embassy aides that took place outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum last month. According to the complaint, Soliman lived with his wife and five children in Colorado Springs, a city about 100 miles (161 km) south of Boulder. The affidavit said he waited until after his daughter's graduation to conduct the attack. Few other details were available about him. Acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons said Soliman had overstayed a tourist visa and had an expired work permit. Federal documents make no reference to his nationality, but the New York Times said he was Egyptian, citing the Department of Homeland Security. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice did not respond to requests for comment. The Denver office of the FBI, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls seeking details in the case. Officials from the Boulder County Jail, Boulder Police and Boulder County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to inquiries. "There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren't properly screened that were allowed in," Lyons said during a press conference in Boston. "I will tell you that's a huge effort for ICE right now." Under former President Joe Biden, ICE prioritised arrests of serious criminals and called for officers to consider humanitarian factors when making arrests. Lyons declined to provide more information, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously said Soliman had entered the country in August 2022 and filed for asylum the following month. "The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country," the spokesperson said. US President Donald Trump said in a social media post that such attacks would not be tolerated. "This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland," he said. Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years of age were transported to hospitals after the attack, Boulder police said. The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district near the University of Colorado, during an event organised by Run for Their Lives, an organisation devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel. The Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe. Sunday's attack was not the first high-profile incident of mass violence in Boulder, a university town that attracts many young professionals and outdoor enthusiasts. In 2021, a gunman fatally shot 10 people, including an off-duty police officer, in a local supermarket. - Reuters
