Middle East crisis live: Hamas says Israeli-backed US ceasefire plan would continue ‘killing and famine' in Gaza
Update:
Date: 2025-05-30T06:16:47.000Z
Title: Opening summary
Content: Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza.
Hamas has said a new Israeli-backed US ceasefire plan would not put an end to the war or the Israeli blockade of Gaza, although it is studying the proposal 'with all national responsibility'.
Bassem Naim, a top Hamas official, told the Associated Press that Israel's response 'means perpetuating the occupation and continuing the killing and famine'. He said it 'does not respond to any of our people's demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine.'
Another senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters the terms echoed Israel's position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded.
Earlier the US said Israel has 'signed off' on the proposal. Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff 'submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed,' the White House said on Thursday, adding that discussions were 'ongoing'.
According to a draft leaked to Reuters, the proposal includes a 60-day ceasefire that would be guaranteed by Trump and mediators Qatar and Egypt and an exchange of 28 Israeli hostages – alive and dead – for 125 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians in the first week.
Aid would be sent to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the agreement according to the draft and Hamas would release the last 30 hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place, Reuters reported.
According to a draft seen by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the aid would be distributed by channels including the UN and Red Crescent. Though all Israeli offensive military activities would cease upon the agreement going into force, the army would be redeployed in areas in northern and southern Gaza, as well as the so-called Netzarim Corridor, the paper reported.
In other key developments:
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a new evacuation warning covering a large area of northern Gaza late on Thursday. It calls for Palestinians residing in Al-Atatra, Jabalia, and the Gaza City neighbourhoods of Shujaiya and Al-Zaytun to head west, warning that these areas 'will be considered dangerous combat zones' immediately.
Israeli forces are carrying out a 'forced evacuation' of patients and medical staff inside Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, hospital officials said. Earlier on Thursday, the hospital said there were 'still 97 people inside the hospital, including 13 patients and injured individuals, and 84 medical staff members'.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in central Gaza killed 22 people, including nine women and children, according to hospital officials. The airstrike hit a family home in Bureij, an urban refugee camp in central Gaza, they said. Israeli strikes in northern Gaza late Wednesday and early Thursday hit a house, killing eight people, including two women and three children, and a car in Gaza City, killing four, local hospitals said.
The latest Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza reached 54,249 on Thursday, according to figures by the territory's health ministry. The majority of those killed are women and children, it says.
The UN criticised Israel's announcement that it will establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, describing the decision as moving 'in the wrong direction'. A UN spokesperson repeated calls by UN chief António Guterres for Israel to 'cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.' A UK minister said Britain 'condemns these actions', adding that settlements are 'illegal under international law, further imperil the two-state solution, and do not protect Israel.'
Italy has offered to treat a Palestinian child who survived an Israeli strike in Gaza in which nine of his siblings were killed. Adam Al-Najjar, 11, is in serious condition in Nasser hospital.
A US charity has accused the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial Israeli-backed group that began distributing food in Gaza this week, of sending out photographs of deliveries containing its logo without permission. The aid bearing the Rahma logo, which was prominently displayed in a press packet distributed by GHF, suggested to some media outlets that the groups were official partners.
Two people were killed in separate Israeli attacks on south Lebanon on Thursday, the country's health ministry said, in the latest flare-up despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The ministry said an Israeli strike hit a forested area in Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa, killing one man, while Israeli gunfire on the border town of Kfar Kila killed another.
The Israeli army said that it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday. The missile interception comes two days after Israeli forces said it intercepted a missile and another projectile fire from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
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