Live updates: Hamas considers Gaza ceasefire proposal as Israeli strikes kill at least 27

Toronto Star

3 days ago

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 27 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Friday, while Hamas was reviewing a new Israeli-approved ceasefire proposal after giving it an initial cool response.
President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy had expressed optimism this week about brokering an agreement that could halt the Israel-Hamas war, allow more aid into Gaza, and return more of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas, around a third of whom are alive.
Experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade of Gaza — slightly eased in recent days — has pushed the population of roughly 2 million Palestinians to the brink of famine.
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Israel's war in Gaza has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began with Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which left around 1,200 dead.
Here's the latest:
Israel says it struck weapons depots in Syria
The airstrikes late Friday targeted missile storage facilities on Syria's Mediterranean coast that the Israeli military said 'posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation,' according to a brief statement.
State-run news agency SANA said the strikes in the Latakia area resulted in 'material damage' but no casualties were reported.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria targeting military infrastructure since Syrian Islamist insurgents toppled the government of Bashar Assad late last year. Israeli forces have also captured a buffer zone along the Golan Heights.
Friday's strike comes a day after the U.S. special envoy to Syria reopened the long-shuttered U.S. ambassador's residence in Damascus — a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government.
Iran nuclear deal remains on the horizon, Trump says
Trump also said Friday say that he still thinks a deal between the U.S. and Iran could be completed in the 'not too distant future.'
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'They don't want to be blown up. They would rather make a deal,' Trump said of Iran. He added, 'That would be a great thing that we could have a deal without bombs being dropped all over the Middle East.'
Trump said he's warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from carrying out preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear program while the talks are playing out.
Trump says Israel-Hamas 'very close' on temporary truce deal
'They're very close to an agreement on Gaza, and we'll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow,' Trump told reporters on Friday.
Trump's optimistic outlook comes after the White House announced Thursday that Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas. U.S. negotiators have not publicized the terms of the proposed deal.
A Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. However, changes may have been made.
UN says it only picked up 5 truckloads of aid from border because of nearby fighting
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Currently, after supplies enter Gaza from Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing, aid workers are required to unload them and reload them onto their own trucks for distribution.
'Yesterday, we and our humanitarian partners only managed to collect five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kareem Shalom crossing,' U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. 'The other 60 trucks had to return to the crossing due to intense hostilities in the area.'
An Israeli official said his country has offered the U.N. logistical and operational support but 'the U.N. is not doing their job.'
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said other organizations had succeeded in collecting aid from the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. The official declined to provide details on how many truckloads were collected or which organizations were able to collect them.
What is a famine and who declares one?
For months, experts have warned that Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of famine. Israel eased its blockade on the territory a few weeks ago, but the U.N. humanitarian aid office said Friday that deliveries into Gaza remain severely restricted.
No famine has been formally declared in the war-torn territory. Often, U.N. officials or governments will make a formal statement, based on an analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on hunger crises.
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'There's a widespread misunderstanding that someone has to declare a famine before it is a famine. That is not the case,' said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 'When IPC shows the data that hits the threshold for a famine, then it's a famine.'
The IPC considers an area to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.
Armed Palestinians steal medicine and food meant for kids from a hospital, UN says
The looters took medicine, health equipment and nutritional supplements intended for malnourished children from warehouses at a field hospital in Deir al-Balah on Friday, and U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
'This appeared to be much more organized and different' from recent looting episodes in which desperate Palestinians took food from warehouses or aid trucks, Dujarric said.
There have been episodes of looting by armed gangs throughout the war, however there's concern that desperation and hunger could lead to a breakdown of law and order in Gaza after three months of near-total Israeli blockade.
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Israeli strike on families in a tent kills 13 people, including 8 kids
An Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the southern city of Khan Younis on Friday afternoon, killing 13 people including eight children, hospital officials said. The strike killed members of two different families, according to Nasser Hospital records viewed by The Associated Press.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israeli forces killed 72 people on Thursday, Gaza medics say
Hospital officials said Friday that at least 72 had been killed in Gaza during the previous day. That figure does not include some hospitals in the north, which are largely cut off due to the fighting.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions are still studying the ceasefire proposal
Hamas said in a terse statement Friday that it is holding consultations with Palestinian factions over the proposal it received from the U.S. Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Qatar's UN envoy says negotiations are ongoing on Gaza ceasefire proposal
Qatar is intensively engaged with the United States and Egypt 'to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and end the war,' said the Gulf country's ambassador to the United Nations.
'Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal,' Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani told reporters at the U.N. on Friday. 'We are very determined to find an ending to this horrific situation in Gaza.'
Throughout the war, Qatar has been an important location for negotiations, and it has served as an intermediary for Hamas
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Many Palestinians in Gaza trek for hours to secure just 1 meal a day
Mohammed Abed said he and his family suffer greatly trying to find food and eat only one meal a day because of shortages. He said he waits for three hours daily to get a small amount of rice.
'It's heartbreaking that people are being starved because of politics. Food and water should not be used for political purposes,' Abed told The Associated Press in the central city of Deir al-Balah.
Fuad Muheisen from Deir a-Balah said if charity kitchens shut down 'all of Gaza will die. No one will stay alive.'
Mnawar al-Rai said she has been displaced five times with her family and now is settled in Deir al-Balah where they tried to collect aid in recent days but came under fire.
She said they have to walk to three or four locations every day to collect a plate of food to feed the children, adding that almost nothing is available in markets because 'merchants are exploiting people.'
Palestinians hope a ceasefire ends what they describe as a meaningless nightmare
Mohammed Abed said people in central Gaza grow optimistic when they hear that a ceasefire is near, only to be disappointed when a deal is not reached.
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'This war has no meaning. This is the war of starvation, death, siege and long lines for food and toilets,' Abed said. 'This war is the 2025 nightmare, 2024 nightmare and 2023 nightmare.'
Another Gaza resident Mohammed Mreil said about the possibility of a truce that: 'We want to live and we want them (Israelis) to live. God did not create us to die.'
US- and Israeli-backed foundation says it distributed over 2 million meals
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said Friday it distributed more than 2 million of what it described as meals within four days of starting operations.
It said that on Friday it distributed six truckloads of food at one distribution point. Palestinian aid-seekers have described getting basic items like bags of pasta, rice and cans of beans.
Hunger and malnutrition have mounted among Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians since Israel barred entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies nearly three months ago, allowing a trickle of aid in only the past two weeks.
The GHF has faced criticism by aid groups and Palestinians for a chaotic rollout since it began operations this week. More than a dozen Palestinians described chaos at all three aid hubs on Thursday, with multiple witnesses reporting a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and they said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds.
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The group said that it was committed to safely and effectively supplying food to a 'large, hungry population.' It said it planned to scale and build additional sites — including in the north of Gaza — in the coming weeks and that it was testing and adapting its distribution model to safely deliver as much aid as possible to the greatest number of people.
▶ Read more about chaos at new distribution sites
Families of hostages plead with Netanyahu
Families of hostages held in Gaza are pleading with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that any agreement to end the war must include the freedom of all the hostages.
There are 58 hostages left in Gaza, of whom Israel believes approximately a third are still alive.
Ayelet Samerano, the mother of Yonatan Samerano, whose body is being held in Gaza, was among the family members who met with Netanyahu on Thursday. She said the news that only 10 hostages and several bodies would be released had once again plunged the families into indescribable uncertainty.
'It's again a selection, you know, all the families, we are right now standing and thinking, is it going to be my son? Isn't it? What will be after part of them will come, what will be with the rest?'
Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas, the White House said Thursday, while Hamas has had a cooler response.
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'If they (Hamas) want guarantees, we will give them guarantees that after the last hostages will back to Israel, we will stop the war,' Samerano said. 'I'm telling you, Netanyahu, say yes. All our countries say yes, the families say yes. All the families, when we are saying, stop the world and give us the hostages back.'
At least 14 killed in Gaza strikes, medics say
Hospital officials and paramedics say Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people and wounded others.
Officials at Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza said the bodies of 12 people, including three women, were brought Friday from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the bodies of two people as well as nine others who were wounded were taken to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City. It said one of the wounded is a doctor who works at the same hospital.
Hamas is reviewing a new ceasefire proposal
Hamas said Friday it was reviewing a new Israeli-approved ceasefire proposal.
The White House said Thursday that Israel accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas. Hamas officials, however, gave the draft a cool response, saying that it seeks to perpetuate Israel's policies of killing and starving people in Gaza. Still, the group said it was going to thoroughly review it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to end the war until all the hostages are released and Hamas is either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile.
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Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
Netanyahu undergoes a routine colonoscopy
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent a routine colonoscopy on Friday morning in Jerusalem, his office said.
The office did not provide further information about whether Netanyahu was moderately sedated or under general anesthesia for the procedure.
Netanyahu, 75, underwent successful surgery in December to have his prostate removed.
Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to bolster a public image of himself as a healthy, energetic leader, as he manages multiple crises including the war in Gaza and his trial for alleged corruption, despite a series of recent health setbacks.