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UPI
3 days ago
- Politics
- UPI
Hamas to release 10 alive hostages in response to U.S. cease-fire plan
1 of 2 | An internally displaced Palestinian girl stands as she plays on the streets of Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on April 14. File photo by Mohammed Saber/ EPA-EFE May 31 (UPI) -- Militant Hamas said Saturday it would release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel's release of Palestinian prisoners and ending the war that began in October 2023. Steve Witkoff, who is President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, on Thursday submitted his proposal to mediators from Qatar and Egypt. "As part of this agreement, 10 living Israeli prisoners held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of eighteen bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners," Hamas said in a statement obtained by CNN. The group said it came to the decision "after conducting a round of national consultations." "This proposal aims to achieve a permanent cease-fire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and ensure the flow of aid to our people and our families in the Gaza Strip," Hamas said in a statement also obtained by The Guardian. The Hamas response is similar to an earlier proposal to release 10 hostages, as well as a number of hostages' remains during the cease-fire in exchange for 1,100 Palestinian prisoners. An unidentified Israeli official told Israeli reporters in Saturday that they are treating Hamas' response as an "effective rejection." Fifty-eight hostages are believed to still be alive. A total of 146 Israeli hostages have been freed or rescued from Gaza, including 25 during the truce. The U.S. proposal called for a 60-day pause in fighting and renewed efforts toward long-term peace, as well as guarantees from Israel that it will not resume its offensive after Hamas releases hostages. Negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire would begin immediately on the first day of the 60-day truce, according to the proposal. Israeli negotiators accepted the deal, but Hamas has not backed it. On Thursday, Hamas official Basem Naim said the U.S. proposal "does not respond to any of our people's demands," including lifting the humanitarian blockade on the Gaza Strip that has led to famine-like conditions among 2 million. Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday threatened Hamas if it did not accept. "The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the 'Witkoff deal' for the release of the hostages -- or be annihilated," Katz said. A cease-fire lasted from Jan. 19 to March 1. Israel refused to move to a planned second phase that could have led to a permanent end to the war. Israel began fighting, including airstrikes. In a ramped-up offensive, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza over the last 24 hours, Hamas-run health officials said. And 72 were killed on Thursday. Negotiators have made little progress. "Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal," Qatar's ambassador to the United Nations, Ayla Ahmed Saif al-Thani said Friday. He noted the mediators from Qatar are "very determined to find an ending to the horrific situation in Gaza." For three months, Israel's blockade has stopped virtually all humanitarian aid into Gaza. "After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving - and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by," the World Food Program said on Saturday. The United Nations aid agency was allowed to bring 77 trucks loaded with flour into Gaza overnight, but the trucks were stopped by crowds of hungry people. Lindsey Hutchison of Plan International said "having the military control aid and choose who they distribute it to in limited ways completely violates the way humanitarian operations are supposed to be conducted." She said the situation is not working. "We saw chaos and despair at the distribution site, which is frankly masquerading as a humanitarian aid scheme. That's not what this is," she told Al Jazeera from New York. More than 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began Oct. 7, 2023. Israel retaliated for a Hamas attack on the same da in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
UPI
26-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Dozens killed overnight in Gaza by IDF strikes amid deal breakdown
1 of 3 | An displaced Palestinian woman stands among the rubble of her destroyed family shelter after an Israeli airstrike in Al Jerjawi school in the Al Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City onMonday. Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE May 26 (UPI) -- Dozens of Palestinians were killed overnight by further Israeli air strikes on the war-torn enclave amid a breakdown in a new cease-fire agreement. An estimated 54 Palestinians sheltering at Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City have been killed by airstrikes carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces, the BBC reported Monday. The scores of dead refugees included children from Beit Lahia after fires were seen engulfing two classrooms fixed as living quarters in the school, which was housing hundreds of people, according to the Hamas-run civil defense authority. At least 35 were reported to be killed when the school was hit. Video footage depicted fire engulfing parts of the school and graphic images of severely burned victims, including kids. On Monday morning, the IDF said it hit 200 "terrorist organizations" across the Gaza Strip in 28 hours as military ops carried on. The IDF claimed it targeted a "Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center" in an area used by "terrorists" to presumably "plan" attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops, accusing Hamas of using the Gaza population "as human shields." Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the terror syndicate agreed to the latest cease-fire deal. The proposal permitted the release in two phases of 10 Israel hostages in exchange for a 70-day truce, a gradual withdrawal of IDF troops out of the territory and release of an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas further demanded the entrance of 1,000 humanitarian aid trucks a day to aid the ailing population in Gaza. However, a senior Israeli official said Monday that it had rejected the cease-fire proposal after reports that Israel had agreed to it in principle. "The proposal received by Israel cannot be accepted by any responsible government," the official told The Times of Israel without providing further detail, claiming that Hamas was setting "impossible conditions that mean a complete failure to meet the war goals, and an inability to release the hostages." On Sunday, IDF officials claimed that since its war began, Israel has "facilitated" the entry of over 1.7 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza. On Monday, Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories office -- a unit of its Ministry of Defense -- claimed that 107 humanitarian aid trucks transporting flour and food were transferred into Gaza "following inspection" via the Kerem Shalom Crossing. But according to international human rights organizations, Gaza is at a "breaking point" while the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has warned of imminent famine on top of reputable accusations of genocide by Israel against Palestinians. Nearly 54,000 people, including at least 16,000 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its invasion, according to the territory's health ministry.
