Latest news with #Palestine
The National
35 minutes ago
- General
- The National
Gaza ceasefire deal uncertain as Hamas views US proposal as 'biased'
The likelihood of a ceasefire in Gaza appeared tenuous on Friday after Hamas said the US truce proposal was "biased" and did not address the dire humanitarian situation on the territory. Sources familiar with the peace effort told The National that the Palestinian group said it considered the proposal as being "distorted" and "biased" in favour of Israel and would most likely reject it in its current form, but not in its entirety. Hamas said on Thursday that it was studying the proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff, which the White House said Israel had already agreed to. It was not clear what its final decision would be. The sources said Hamas was dissatisfied with the plan's lack of "genuine guarantees" that indirect negotiations with Israel during the proposed 60-day truce would lead to an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. "Hamas sees the Witkoff plan to be biased in favour of Israel, distorted and incomplete," said one of the sources. "It views it as a fulfilment of Israeli demands and does not appropriately treat the humanitarian situation in Gaza. "Hamas's response will be detailed and will mention the points that Hamas agrees to as well as those it rejects." Hamas, said the sources, says the plan left the prospect of an Israeli withdrawal and a long-term truce dependent on the progress of the negotiations, rather than the fruition of the process. Besides the 60-day truce, the plan provides for the staggered release of 10 hostages and the remains of 18 who died while in captivity. In exchange, Israel will free hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, according to the sources. The sources said Hamas believes the plan ignores its suggestions on the timeline and dynamics of the handover of hostages. It also fails to treat the delivery of aid to Gaza as a "human right", leaving the process closely linked to the proposed plan and, subsequently, subject to Israel's use of food as a weapon, they said. They did not elaborate. "In Hamas's view, it's a reproduction of the starvation policy adopted by Israel in Gaza but only wrapped in diplomatic language," said the source. Under the plan, the resumption of humanitarian aid would involve 1,000 lorries a day, a number intended to quickly address the widespread hunger and acute shortages of medicine and other essentials among Gaza's 2.3 million residents, said the sources. A distribution plan set out by UN experts for its personnel and members of affiliated agencies to jointly put into effect has been handed to Israeli authorities, according to the sources. Besides a long-term ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the negotiations proposed to take place during the truce will tackle a range of sensitive issues, including the governing of postwar Gaza, the fate of Hamas's weapons and the exile abroad of its senior officials, said the sources. Hamas has already suggested it would keep away from governing Gaza and any reconstruction effort and has said it is open to laying down and storing its weapons under international supervision, but not surrendering them. It has also indicated that it will agree to some of its senior officials, as well as some from allied groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, leaving Gaza to live in exile – provided they are not attacked later by Israel. The Gaza war, now in its 20th month, was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200. Hamas fighters also took about 250 others hostage. Israel's responded with a relentless military campaign that has to date killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and injured more than twice that number, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The war also laid to waste large swathes of Gaza's built-up areas. The last ceasefire in Gaza went into effect on January 19. It expired on March 1 but the territory remained relatively calm until March 18 when Israel resumed military operations.
ABC News
an hour ago
- General
- ABC News
Aid groups say food is failing to reach north Gaza
As aid trickles into parts of Gaza after a blockade, aid groups say food is failing to reach Palestinians in the north.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
New U.S. Plan to Pause Gaza War Draws Hamas Criticism
The U.S. has presented Israel and Hamas with a new proposal to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip, though the militant group has already criticized it for not requiring an end to the 20-month conflict. The agreement calls for Hamas to release 10 of the roughly 20 hostages Israel believes are still alive and the bodies of another 19 within the first week of the deal in exchange for a 60-day cease-fire and the release of Palestinians held by Israel, according to a draft reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The Independent
an hour ago
- Health
- The Independent
Starving Palestinians, gunfire and deadly stampede: Horror in Gaza as Israel's aid plan descends into chaos
Starving Palestinians desperate for food say Israeli helicopter gunships and tanks fired around crowds gathered at a new food distribution site in Gaza, as Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial 'aid' plan descended into chaos. Gaza's health ministry said at least one person was killed and 48 wounded in violence on Tuesday when desperate crowds overran the site in Rafah, south of the besieged strip. It was set up by a US-backed foundation, military contractors and the Israeli military whose soldiers reportedly opened fire. Hospital officials said that four people died in a separate stampede on Wednesday when hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse in an equally desperate attempt to find food. On Thursday, Israel's government approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank – illegal under international law – in a move that will deepen divisions with some allies, including the UK. On Friday, hopes of a ceasefire were again dashed when Hamas said a US plan backed by Israel failed to meet its demands. Meanwhile, Palestinians on the ground continue to suffer, with a warning that millions are now at risk of famine. Ahmed Shaker, 30, described the chaos in Rafah on Tuesday as he tried to get food for his family. 'Because of the large number of people, they collided with each other,' he said. 'The intensity of the stampede increased until the fence separating the barriers collapsed. A quadcopter came and started firing around us.' The father-of-three's home was destroyed in the bombings. He has been displaced four times and was trying to get food for his one-year-old baby and two toddler daughters. 'Then the tank approached and started firing near the people,' he continued. 'The bullets were hitting the sand. Then the Apache helicopter came and fired toward the sea.' 'My children's hunger drove me to go. It's been more than a month and a half since I've eaten bread, except for a few small pieces. I was determined to go so I could feed my children and spare them from starvation,' he added. Khairiya, 64, told The Independent she walked several kilometres on foot to get to the distribution site, from the tent where she now lives after being displaced seven times. But the place became crowded. 'There was no more control,' the mother-of-seven said, adding that the Israeli army started shooting from quadcopters and tanks. 'My husband is 71 and has difficulty moving, especially when walking and carrying the aid box,' she explained. 'My eldest son told me not to go, but I went because we had little food. Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to get the aid. 'Some were able to get aid, and many did not. The distribution site is in the middle of sand dunes, up and down. Despite the difficulty, I will go again after the next delivery is announced. I haven't had bread for two weeks,' she added. The Israeli military says it guards the site from a distance, and that it fired only warning shots to control the situation. The US-based and backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said its security contractors manning the site said it did not open fire and that distribution continued without incident shortly afterwards. It told Israeli media it plans to open four sites and expand operations in Gaza in the coming weeks. However, a Red Cross field hospital reported that the 48 wounded people had suffered gunshot injuries, including women and children. Israel has faced ferocious criticism from its allies, including the UK, which this month sanctioned Israeli settlers and organisations and froze free trade talks over its three-month blockade on Gaza. The entire 2.3 million strong population is now at risk of famine, according to a United Nations global hunger monitor. And so under intense international pressure, Israel ended the 11-week-long aid blockade last week. It has now allowed limited relief through a heavily criticised plan to corral the population into areas with feeding points, like the site in Rafah which was opened on Monday. The United Nations and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new aid system, arguing there is no way it can meet Gaza's overwhelming need and that it allows Israel to use food as a means of population control. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and civilians seeking supplies and continue to call for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted aid access. UN agencies have reported that separately some aid deliveries resumed last week, with Israel approving about 800 truckloads of relief. But UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that fewer than 500 truckloads made it to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, 'where we and our partners could collect just over 200 of them – limited by insecurity and restricted access'. The UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag told the Security Council on Wednesday that the amount of aid Israel had so far allowed the UN to deliver was 'comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk', while everyone in Gaza remains at risk of famine. Israel may face further sanctions as it separately approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law and widely seen as a major obstacle to long-term peace. Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist minister who advocates for full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and for Gaza to be 'totally destroyed', said the new settlements would be in the northern part of West Bank but did not specify locations. Israeli media citing the defence ministry said that among the new settlements, including existing 'outposts' that are illegal under even Israeli law, would be legalised. A spokesperson for defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the announcement. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited rule in the West Bank, and Hamas militant group which runs Gaza, both condemned the Israeli decision. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its ferocious offensive in Gaza, hitting dozens of targets overnight, including what it said were weapons storage sites, sniper positions, and tunnels. Palestinian medical workers said Israeli forces killed at least 45 people on Thursday, including 23 in a strike that hit several homes in the Bureij camp in central Gaza. Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of Hamas' armed wing, has been killed, apparently confirming his death in a recent strike in the Gaza Strip. There was no confirmation from Hamas. Despite the bombing and violence, families in Gaza returned to distribution points on Thursday, desperate for more food. 'Because of the blockade and high prices, everyone will go to receive aid. I met friends from all over the strip on the way back. I got a box that will last my family only five days,' said Fadi, 34, a computer engineer who has been displaced six times and whose house has been flattened. 'But this method is exhausting and humiliating. We were forced to go because of extreme hunger after 11 weeks of blockade. Also, it's difficult for elderly people to walk kilometres and carry a box weighing more than 10 kilos.'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Israel's aid blockade is making Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth': UN
Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as 'the hungriest place on earth.' Spokesperson Jens Laerke said only 600 of 900 aid trucks had been authorized to get to Israel's border with Gaza, and from there a mixture of bureaucratic and security obstacles made it all but impossible to safely carry aid into the region. 'What we have been able to bring in is flour,' he told a regular news conference on Friday. 'That's not ready to eat, right? It needs to be cooked... 100 percent of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine.' Tommaso della Longa, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, added that half of its medical facilities in the region were out of action for lack of fuel or medical equipment.
