Hamas says it's reviewing a U.S. ceasefire deal backed by Israel
Naim said Hamas had received an official response from the Israeli side to the proposal, but said it failed to 'to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people,' including an immediate cessation of hostilities. But he said Hamas was still considering the ceasefire proposal.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 54,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the enclave, which has been run by Hamas since 2007.
Meanwhile, aid groups have warned of a dire humanitarian situation in the enclave due to Israel's offensive and 11-week-long blockade that barred the entry of food and medicine before it was lifted last week.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling it a "nasty situation," adding that 'Oct. 7 was a very nasty day, the worst that I think I've ever seen.'
He told reporters the U.S. was getting food to Palestinian civilians, with a new system for aid distribution launched over the past week, led by the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
GHF began operations this week days after Israel lifted its blockade, despite criticism from humanitarian groups who warned that its operations undermined a long-running humanitarian framework in Gaza and risked compromising the independence of aid operations.
They also expressed significant concern over a plan laid out by Netanyahu to see aid distributed at sites in southern Gaza, effectively forcibly displacing Palestinians there.
In an update Friday, however, GHF said it planned to build additional sites across Gaza, including in the northern region, 'in the weeks ahead.' The organization said it had so far distributed more than 2.1 million meals to Palestinians in the span of four days.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US judge rules prisons must provide gender-affirming care for trans people
A US judge on Tuesday ruled the US Bureau of Prisons must keep providing transgender inmates gender-affirming care, despite an executive order Donald Trump signed on his first day back in office to halt funding for such care. US district judge Royce Lamberth in Washington DC allowed a group of more than 2,000 transgender inmates in federal prisons to pursue a lawsuit challenging the order as a class action. He ordered the Bureau of Prisons to provide them with hormone therapy and accommodations such as clothing and hair-removal devices while the lawsuit plays out. The ruling does not require the bureau to provide surgical care related to gender transitions. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the Trump administration expects to ultimately prevail in the legal dispute. 'The district court's decision allowing transgender women, aka MEN, in women's prisons fundamentally makes women less safe and ignores the biological truth that there are only two genders,' Fields said in an email. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the prisoners, said the ruling was 'a critical reminder to the Trump administration that trans people, like all people, have constitutional rights that don't simply disappear because the president has decided to wage an ideological battle'. About 2,230 transgender inmates are housed in federal custodial facilities and halfway houses, according to the Department of Justice. About two-thirds of them, 1,506, are transgender women, most of whom are housed in men's prisons. The named plaintiffs, two transgender men and one transgender woman, sued the Trump administration in March to challenge Trump's January 20 executive order aimed at combating what the administration called 'gender ideology extremism.' The executive order directed the federal government to only recognize two, biologically distinct sexes, male and female; and house transgender women in men's prisons. It also ordered the bureau to stop spending any money on 'any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate's appearance to that of the opposite sex'. Lamberth, appointed by Republican president Ronald Reagan, said in Tuesday's ruling that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their lawsuit because the bureau did not perform any analysis before cutting off treatment that its own medical staff had previously deemed to be medically appropriate for the inmates. Even if it had extensively studied the issue before deciding to stop gender-affirming care, the decision might still violate the US constitution's eighth amendment's protections against 'cruel and unusual' punishment, Lamberth wrote. The Department of Justice had argued that the judge should defer to the policy decision of a democratically elected president, but Lamberth said a functioning democracy requires respect for 'all duly enacted laws,' including those that blocked the executive branch from acting in an 'arbitrary and capricious' manner. Democratic self-governance 'does not mean blind submission to the whims of the most recent election-victor', Lamberth wrote. The executive order said it was meant to promote the 'dignity, safety, and wellbeing of women, and to stop the spread of 'gender ideology' which denies 'the immutable biological reality of sex'. But the inmates receiving hormone treatments had little interest in promoting any ideology, and were instead taking 'measures to lessen the personal anguish caused by their gender dysphoria,' Lamberth wrote.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
IDF says roads to Gaza aid centres are 'combat zones' as sites close for day
Aid distribution centres in Gaza will be closed for a day on Wednesday, as the Israeli military warned roads leading to the sites will be considered "combat zones".The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US and Israel-backed aid network which began operating last week, said it was closing its sites for "update, organization and efficiency improvements works".In a separate update, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said people would be "prohibited" from entering the distribution centres or travelling on roads leading to on Tuesday, at least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire close to a distribution centre, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency. The IDF said its troops fired shots after identifying suspects who moved towards them "deviating from the designated access routes".It was the third deadly incident in as many days to occur on a route to a GHF said it would start distributing aid again on comes as humanitarian organisations continue to warn that Palestinians in Gaza do not have sufficient access to food, water and other GHF aims to replace the UN-led aid distribution network in Gaza following repeated claims from Israel that it did not prevent supplies being hijacked by Hamas, which the UN the new distribution system, Gazans are required to collect supplies from a small number of centres in areas under Israeli military control and staffed by armed American say the model has left people needing to walk long distances to the sites and transport boxes weighing 20kg back to their homes or UN and other humanitarian organisations have accused the GHF of failing to uphold humanitarian on Tuesday, Reverend Dr Johnnie Moore - a Christian evangelical pastor and prominent supporter of US President Donald Trump - was announced as the new head of was appointed to replace its first chief Jake Wood, a former US marine who stood down and criticised the GHF launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 54,470 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 4,201 since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, according to the territory's health ministry.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Gaza aid centres to be closed tomorrow - as IDF warns nearby roads will be 'considered combat zones'
Aid distribution centres in Gaza will be closed on Wednesday, the US-backed organisation operating them has announced, after Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire near one of its sites. In a post on Facebook, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said the centres would be shut "for renovations, organisation, and efficiency improvements". "Due to the ongoing upgrades, entry into the distribution centre areas is strictly prohibited," it added. "Please avoid the site and adhere to the general instructions. Operations will resume on Thursday." Following the announcement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told people in Gaza that "travel is prohibited" on Wednesday "via the roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones, and entry into the distribution centre areas is strictly prohibited". It comes after 27 Palestinians were killed while waiting for aid to be distributed in the Rafah area of southern Gaza early on Tuesday, according to the Hamas -run health ministry. The ministry claimed that more than 90 people were injured in what it called a "massacre", with some of the wounded in a serious condition. The IDF said it fired "near a few individual suspects" who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots, about half a kilometre from the aid distribution site of the GHF. It added that people were moving towards its forces in a way that "posed a threat to them". Later, IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said accusations that the Israeli military shot at civilians at the aid centre were "completely unfounded and false". "We are debriefing this event, and we will find out the truth," he added. The media office of the Gaza government, which is run by Hamas, said in a statement that Israel was transforming aid distribution centres "into mass death traps and bloodbaths" with 102 people killed and 490 more injured in just eight days since the centres opened on 27 May. The aid centres were "luring starving civilians to them as a result of the crippling famine", said the media office, which called for humanitarian aid delivered through UN agencies and neutral international organisations rather than the GHF. The IDF said in a statement: "Earlier today (Tuesday), during the movement of the crowd along the designated routes toward the aid distribution site - approximately half a kilometre from the site - IDF troops identified several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated access routes. "The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops." Sky News pressed Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer on whether any of these individuals had weapons - but he failed to answer the question. Mencer told Sky's Kamali Melbourne: "The warning shots were fired away from the aid distribution point in response to the threat perceived by IDF troops." The GHF said in a statement on Tuesday: "While the aid distribution was conducted safely and without incident at our site today, we understand that IDF is investigating whether a number of civilians were injured after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone. This was an area well beyond our secure distribution site and operations area. "We recognise the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when travelling to our distribution sites. Questions regarding the potential incident should be referred to the IDF Spokesperson." How can Israel know who is getting aid amid chaos? The Israeli government says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is supposed to prevent aid from going to Hamas. That's almost certainly not being achieved. The operation is in chaos – every morning tens of thousands of people make the journey south on foot to get food when the two hubs open after dawn. It's first come, first served. It's the survival of the fittest in a place where almost everyone is already starving. The pictures of massive crowds grabbing food boxes in a frenzied manner aren't just an indication of the desperation, but would also appear to undermine Israel's claims the aid isn't going to Hamas. Amid the chaos and thousands of people (mostly men) scrabbling for aid, how could they possibly know who is getting it? The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah received 184 casualties. A spokesperson added that 19 of those were declared dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after. There were three children and two women among the dead, according to Mohammed Saqr, who is the head of nursing at Nasser Hospital in Gaza. How is aid being distributed in Gaza? The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) launched its first aid distribution sites at the end of May to combat widespread hunger among the population in Gaza. The GHF, a private group endorsed by Israel, operates as part of a controversial new aid system established by Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May that Israel would be "taking control of food distribution" in Gaza after it accused Hamas of diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied stealing aid. GHF's aid plan has been criticised by UN agencies and established charities, which have refused to work with the new distribution system. The UN and major aid groups said the aid plan 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 territory. The IDF said in a statement that the GHF "operate(s) independently in order to enable the distribution of aid to the Gazan residents - and not to Hamas". It also highlighted that Israeli troops were "not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites". Israel has said it ultimately wants the UN to work through the GHF, which is using private US security and logistics groups to bring aid into Gaza for distribution by civilian teams at so-called secure distribution sites. There have been repeated reports of Palestinians being killed near Rafah as they gathered at the aid distribution site to get desperately needed supplies. A spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Jeremy Laurence, said: "For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation'." Mr Laurence's office said the impediment of access to food and relief for civilians in Gaza may constitute a war crime, describing attacks on civilians trying to access food aid as "unconscionable". The alleged shooting comes just two days after reports that 31 people were killed as they walked to a distribution centre run by the GHF in the Rafah area. Witnesses said the deaths came after Israeli forces opened fire, while Palestinian and Hamas-linked media attributed the deaths they reported to an Israeli airstrike. The IDF later said its forces "did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false". 2:55 On Monday, three more Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was "appalled" by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid. He called for an independent investigation and said: "It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food." The IDF said that three of its soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on Israeli forces since the ceasefire with Hamas ended in March. Officials said the soldiers, all in their early 20s, died in northern Gaza, with Israeli media reporting that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area. Last week, Israel accepted a US-brokered ceasefire proposal, which would see the release over the course of a week of nine living hostages and half of the known hostages who have died. But Hamas said that it was , offering 10 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
