Hamas says holding consultations on 60-day Gaza ceasefire proposal
The statement came ahead of a visit on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war.
The conflict in Gaza began with Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by militants.
Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen a temporary halt in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
"The movement is conducting consultations with leaders of Palestinian forces and factions regarding the proposal received... from the mediators," Hamas said in a statement early Friday.
Hours earlier, Netanyahu vowed to bring home all the hostages held by militants in Gaza, after coming under massive domestic pressure including from the hostages' loved ones over their fate.
"I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them," Netanyahu told inhabitants of the Nir Oz kibbutz, the community that saw the most hostages seized in the 2023 Hamas attack.
Trump on Thursday said he wanted "safety" for people in Gaza, as he prepared to host his ally. "I want to see safety for the people of Gaza. They've gone through hell," he said.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
US blames Hamas for attack that hurt two US aid workers in Gaza
The United States on Saturday blamed Hamas for an attack that injured two American aid workers from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at a food distribution site in Gaza. The US- and Israeli-backed GHF said in a statement that the injured Americans were receiving medical treatment and were in a stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. 'The attack – which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans – occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,' the GHF said. US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce blamed 'Hamas terrorists' for the attack. 'This act of violence against the people actually bringing relief to Gazans lays bare the depravity of Hamas,' she said in a post on X. 'GHF has contributed over 62 MILLION MEALS – nothing will stop these courageous aid workers. We are praying for the rapid recovery of the injured Americans.' The Israeli military earlier accused what it called 'terrorist organisations' of sabotaging the distribution of aid in Gaza. GHF, which began distributing aid in Gaza in May, employs private US military contractors to provide security at their sites. Gaza has seen an escalation in violence as efforts continue to reach a ceasefire agreement. Hamas on Friday said it had responded positively to a US-brokered deal and was prepared to enter talks. US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. Gazan authorities reported at least 70 people have been killed in the territory by the Israeli military in the last 24 hours, including 23 near aid distribution sites. The ministry did not specify where or how exactly they had been killed. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the reports. In a statement on Friday, the military said troops had killed 100 militants in Gaza in the past week, and that it had 'operational control' over 65% of Gaza after an offensive against Hamas fighters in the north. The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza on Thursday had warned residents of the coastal enclave not to assist the GHF, saying deadly incidents near its distribution sites endangered hungry Gazans. The GHF bypasses traditional aid channels, including the United Nations, which says the US-based organisation is neither impartial nor neutral. Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, the UN says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid handouts. A senior UN official said last week that the majority of people killed were trying to reach aid distribution sites of the GHF. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes. Israel denies the accusations.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Songs of outrage
On June 28, at the Glastonbury music festival in the U.K., the BBC staff were on high alert. Scared of the possibility of protest music that could discomfit the powers that be, they had already decided not to live stream the performance of the Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap, which has in the past used its shows to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Palestine. Bob Vylan, the British punk rock duo, was nowhere in their radar. This meant that all those who had tuned into the BBC stream heard the chants 'free, free Palestine' and 'death, death to the IDF' (referring to the Israel Defence Forces), initiated by lead singer Bobby Vylan (real name Pascal Robinson-Foster) and repeated by the large crowd waving Palestine flags. The band, which was just beginning to make its mark outside the punk underground, suddenly found itself at the centre of the global music spotlight as well as a political storm. Although a few pro-Israeli voices criticised them, the band found overwhelming support online, but the establishment was swift in its crackdown. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had earlier demanded that Kneecap not be given a platform at the festival, called it 'appalling hate speech'. The Avon and Somerset Police launched a criminal investigation against the band. The BBC issued a formal apology, asked some senior staff involved in the event to step back from their duties and put Bob Vylan in the 'high risk' category. The U.S. State Department revoked the visas of the band members, making the band lose close to 20 scheduled shows in the country. Music festivals in France and Manchester dropped them. But Bob Vylan appeared to expect the blowback and was aware of what they stood to lose for saying what they said. 'We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza,' the band wrote on Instagram. Bob Vylan emerged in 2017 in Ipswich, catching attention with their music which brings together the anti-establishment soul of punk rock and hip-hop. Some of their songs — which have over this week found lakhs of new listeners — and the issues that they talk about are reminiscent of rap metal legends Rage Against the Machine, known for their politically-charged performances. Strongly protective of their privacy from the 'surveillance state', the duo adopted the stage names Bobby Vylan and Bobbie Vylan. Protest music A pro-Palestinian stand has always been a part of the band's ideology, with the lead singer participating in protests since a young age. Their lyrics such as 'The government, their not helping no one out, except for the rich people... It makes me violent' or 'Give Churchill's statue the rope and see if it floats' are designed to provoke and call attention to pertinent issues. In a way, they are sticking to the conventions of the genre, for sparking outrage is par for the course for punk bands. Banning musicians is not a first for the BBC either. It had issued a total ban on the punk band Sex Pistols in 1977 after they released the song God Save the Queen, which asked uncomfortable questions about the British monarchy. Bob Vylan also belongs to a long tradition of protest music, which witnessed its heights during the Vietnam War, when there were songs like Phil Ochs's Draft Dodger Rag, Pete Seeger's Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son and Bob Dylan's Masters of War. The current spring of protest music led by Kneecap and Bob Vylan is certainly more direct and hard-hitting, partly due to a sense of helplessness. That is probably why their voices resonated with such a large number of music buffs, who have hit out at even the much-loved band Radiohead for their unclear stand on Palestine. At one point, Bob Vylan appeared to be getting even more media attention than the ongoing deaths in Gaza. But as the band said, 'We are not the story. We are a distraction from the story. And whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction.' Gaza remains the story.
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
CPM urges phone blackout from 9 to 9:30 pm daily in solidarity with Palestine
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday endorsed the "Silence for Gaza" global call that urges people to switch off their mobile phones for half an hour every day, from 9 pm to 9:30 pm local time, as a symbolic act of solidarity with the people of Palestine."The CPI(M) urges people across the country to actively participate in this digital resistance by spreading the word: switch off your mobile phones and abstain from posting, liking or commenting on any social media platform during the protest period," the Left party joining the global 'Silence for Gaza' campaign, the CPI(M) stands with the Palestinian people and against the brutal, genocidal assault unleashed by Israel. Let this collective silence be a defiant refusal to be complicit, and a powerful assertion that the voices against war crimes will not be silenced," it added. The CPI(M) quoted a recently-released UN report, "From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide", and said it details how various multinational corporations are complicit in Israel's assault on Gaza."The sinister role of these corporations must be exposed, and they must be held accountable to the people," it said."These corporations feed off our digital footprints, even as they enable genocide. Shutting off our mobile phones for half an hour each day at the designated time is a small but powerful act of digital disruption, a strike against the surveillance capitalism that bankrolls Israel's genocide and apartheid," the Left party war in Gaza was set off after Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 people hostage. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displaced nearly all of Gaza's 20 lakh people and left many on the edge of famine.- EndsMust Watch
