Trump says Iran is involved in Gaza hostage negotiations
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday Iran is involved in negotiations aimed at arranging a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas.
'Gaza right now is in the midst of a massive negotiation between us and Hamas and Israel, and Iran actually is involved, and we'll see what's going to happen with Gaza. We want to get the hostages back,' Trump told reporters during an event in the White House State Dining Room.
Trump did not elaborate and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for details of Iran's involvement. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States has proposed a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would abide by the terms but Hamas thus far has rejected the plan.
Under the proposal 28 Israeli hostages — alive and dead — would be released in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
The United States and Iran are also separately trying to negotiate a deal on Tehran's nuclear program.
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Saudi Gazette
31 minutes ago
- Saudi Gazette
Palestinians say local gunmen and Israeli forces opened fire near Gaza aid site
GAZA — Palestinians in Gaza say they were fired on once again as they headed to one of the aid distribution centres run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Monday. Witnesses said that for the first time they were fired on by Palestinian gunmen near the GHF site in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah, in the south. They also said Israeli troops fired on them. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said six people were killed and 99 injured from areas designated for aid collection. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. The GHF said the Tal al-Sultan site did not open on Monday and that there were no incidents at two other sites which did hand out aid. It comes days after Israel's prime minister acknowledged that it was arming Palestinian clans in Gaza who were opposed to Hamas. Almost every day since the GHF began distributing aid on 26 May, there have been deadly incidents near one or other of the four centres it has so far opened. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while approaching one site in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah on a route that runs through an Israeli military zone. In the previous incidents, witnesses have said that Israeli forces opened fire at crowds. The Israeli military has denied that troops fired at civilians within the site, but it has said that troops fired at "suspects" who ignored warning shots and approached them. In Monday's incident, people at the scene said that Palestinian gunmen shot at them, as well as Israeli forces. They said the gunmen appeared to be allied with the Israeli forces, as they were operating near them and moved back into an Israeli military zone. One witness told BBC Arabic's Middle East daily programme that he saw a group of young men dressed in civilian clothes and with their faces completely covered when he arrived in the area to get a box of food aid from the GHF site. "At first, we thought they might be Palestinian youths helping with the process, but suddenly, they began shooting at us," Hisham Saeed Salem said. "Even those who managed to get a box of aid were targeted and shot. We still don't know who these attackers are. They took everything from us - some even stole from us during the chaos," he added. Another man, Mohammed Sakout, said: "Several young men were shot and killed right behind me. I narrowly escaped death - some bullets passed just inches from my head." "At first, it was the Israeli army that was shooting at civilians. But today, we were shocked to discover the presence of gangs and militias," he added. At Nasser hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis, a seriously injured man being treated for a gunshot wound to his neck, Mohammed Kabaga, told the Associated Press: "A group of masked armed men who were organising us starting firing towards us directly." "We went to get aid. They said to stand in line. We stood in line and suddenly they started shooting at us. While I was standing, I was surprised when a bullet hit me, I got dizzy and fell down," he said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was looking into the reports. The GHF said in a statement that it opened two sites on Monday in the Saudi neighbourhood of Rafah and Wadi Gaza, in the centre of the Strip, and that "aid distribution at both sites proceeded without incident". When asked by the BBC about the reports from Tal al-Sultan, a GHF spokesperson said there was "nothing around our sites". However, a post on the group's Facebook account did say on Monday afternoon that the Tal al-Sultan centre was closed due to the "chaos of the crowds". The GHF's interim executive director, John Acree, said it had delivered more than 11 million meals over the past two weeks "without an injury or major incident at our distribution sites". Gaza's health ministry said hospitals had received a total of 127 dead and 1,287 injured people from "areas designated for aid distribution" during the same period. The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to Palestinians. The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence. They also warn that Gaza's 2.1 million population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an almost three-month total Israeli blockade that was partially eased three weeks ago. The US and Israel say the GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing. The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 54,927 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry. — BBC
Asharq Al-Awsat
31 minutes ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Says Gaza-Bound Aid Boat Activists Awaiting Deportation
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat have been taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation, Israel said Tuesday, after their vessel was intercepted by naval forces. The activist group departed Italy on June 1 aboard the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, whose entire population the UN has warned is at risk of famine. Israeli forces intercepted the boat in international waters on Monday and towed it to the port of Ashdod. "The passengers of the 'Selfie Yacht' arrived at Ben Gurion Airport to depart from Israel and return to their home countries," the Israeli foreign ministry said on X. "Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority." The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the activist group operating the vessel, said all 12 campaigners were "being processed and transferred into the custody of Israeli authorities". "They may be permitted to fly out of Tel Aviv as early as tonight," it said on social media. Video released earlier by the group showed the activists with their hands up as Israeli forces boarded the vessel, with one of them saying nobody was injured. Türkiye condemned the interception as a "heinous attack" and Iran denounced it as "a form of piracy" in international waters. In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, was damaged in international waters off Malta as it headed to Gaza, with the activists saying they suspected an Israeli drone attack. A 2010 Israeli commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach the naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead. On Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the blockade, in place for years before the Israel-Hamas war, was needed to prevent Palestinian fighters from importing weapons. - Journalists on board - The Madleen was intercepted about 185 kilometers (115 miles) west of the coast of Gaza, according to coordinates from the coalition. President Emmanuel Macron requested that the six French nationals aboard the boat "be allowed to return to France as soon as possible", a presidential official said. Two of them are journalists, Omar Fayyad of Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Yanis Mhamdi who works for online publication Blast, according to media rights group Reporters Without Borders, which condemned their detention and called for their "immediate release". Al Jazeera "categorically denounces the Israeli incursion", the network said in a statement, demanding the reporter's release. Adalah, an Israeli NGO offering legal support for the country's Arab minority, said the activists on board the Madleen had requested its services, and that the group was likely to be taken to a detention center before being deported. Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies. In what organizers called a "symbolic act", hundreds of people launched a land convoy on Monday from Tunisia with the aim of reaching Gaza. - 'Our children are dying' - Israel recently allowed some deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. But humanitarian agencies have criticized the GHF and the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality. Dozens of people have been killed near GHF distribution points since late May, according to Gaza's civil defense agency. In Gaza City on Monday, displaced Palestinian Umm Mohammed Abu Namous told AFP that she hopes "that all nations stand with us and help us, and that we receive 10 boats instead of one". "We are innocent people," she said. "Our children are dying of hunger... We do not want to lose more children because of hunger." The 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,880 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable. Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Asharq Al-Awsat
31 minutes ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Egyptian Source Denies Madleen Had Entered its Regional Waters
An Egyptian source denied on Monday claims that the Madleen Gaza-bound aid boat had sailed through Egyptian regional waters before heading to Israel. The activist group on board the vessel departed Italy on June 1 carrying food and supplies for Gaza, whose entire population the UN has warned is at risk of famine. Israeli forces intercepted the boat in international waters on Monday and towed it to the port of Ashdod. The Egyptian source said the vessel had not approached the country's regional waters, "otherwise it would have come under the protection of the Egyptian navy and awaited a decision by the country's authorities over what to do with it." The authorities were not contacted by anyone onboard the Madleen, it stressed. The regional waters are protected by the military and entering them demands permission and coordination, "and this did not happen," it explained. Moreover, Egyptian forces cannot allow the entry of the forces of another country into its waters, it added. Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists detained aboard the Madleen have been taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation, Israel said Tuesday, after their vessel was intercepted by naval forces. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the activist group operating the vessel, said all 12 campaigners were "being processed and transferred into the custody of Israeli authorities".
