Hamas says it has given 'positive' response to Gaza ceasefire proposal
It is not clear if the militant group's statement late on Friday means it has accepted a proposal from US President Donald Trump for a 60-day ceasefire.
Hamas said it would be holding discussions with leaders and other Palestinian groups about ceasefire proposals, which will be presented to Egyptian and Qatari mediators. The group said it would give its final response once talks have ended.
Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which the US would "work with all parties to end the war.' He urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.
In a statement late on Friday, Hamas said it 'has submitted its positive response' to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.It said it is 'fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.' It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation.
A Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to discuss the response with the press, said the ceasefire could start as early as next week.
However, he said talks were needed first to work out how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce.
Hamas has said it wants aid to flow in greater quantities through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies. The official also said that negotiations would start from the first day of the truce on a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in return for the release of remaining hostages.
He said that Trump has guaranteed that the truce will be extended beyond 60 days if needed for those negotiations to reach a deal. There has been no confirmation from the United States of such a guarantee.
Previous rounds of negotiations have run aground over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war's end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the destruction of the militant group.'We'll see what happens. We're going to know over the next 24 hours,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.
Hamas's statement came as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking aid.The UN human rights office said it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid.
Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by Israeli-backed American organisation the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), while others waited for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian groups, it said.
Since GHF began distributions in late May, witnesses have said almost daily that Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading to the food centres.
To reach the sites, people must walk several miles through an Israeli military zone where troops control the road.The Israeli military has said previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops.
The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel's military.On Friday, in reaction to the UN rights agency's report, it said in a statement that it was investigating reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid.
It said it was working at 'minimising possible friction between the population' and Israeli forces, including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes.Separately, witnesses have said Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the UN or other aid organizations not associated with GHF.On Friday, 17 people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area, officials at Nasser Hospital said.Three survivors told the Associated Press they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military 'red zone' in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones.
It was a 'crowd of people, may God help them, who want to eat and live,' said Seddiq Abu Farhana, who was shot in the leg, forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed. 'There was direct firing.'
UN human rights office spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, said the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings.
But she said 'it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points' operated by GHF.Ms Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were 'GHF-related,' meaning at or near its distribution sites.In a statement on Friday, the GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures, accusing the UN of taking its casualty figures 'directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry' and of trying 'to falsely smear our effort.'Ms Shamdasani said that the data "is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organisations".
World Health Organisation representative Rik Peeperkorn said Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital operating in the south of Gaza, receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day, most coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites.
The International Committee of the Red Cross also said in late June that its field hospital near one of the GHF sites has been overwhelmed more than 20 times in the previous months by mass casualties, most suffering gunshot injuries while on their way to the food distribution sites.The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
The ministry is run by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government, and its numbers are widely cited by the UN and international organisations.
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