Latest news with #RamadanAbed
GMA Network
2 days ago
- Politics
- GMA Network
Hamas says no interim truce possible without work toward permanent ceasefire deal
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that hit a tent sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed CAIRO - Hamas' armed wing spokesperson said on Friday that while the group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict. Hamas has repeatedly offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech. Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave. Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel's efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire, "have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas". As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians. "If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives," said Abu Ubaida. Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday. The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion. Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. — Reuters
Barnama
3 days ago
- Politics
- Barnama
Doctors Without Borders Slams EU's 'Hypocrisy' Over Gaza
Palestinians inspect the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, in Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed GENEVA, July 17 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday sharply criticised the EU for its continued failure to act decisively to stop what the organisation calls "orchestrated ethnic cleansing" in Gaza, accusing the bloc of complicity in the face of deliberate mass suffering. According to Anadolu Ajansi (AA), in a post on X, the MSF said it had sent an open letter to EU leaders nearly a month earlier, on June 16, urging immediate action to stop the mass atrocities unfolding in the Palestinian enclave. "The EU can and must act now to stop mass atrocities in Gaza," it wrote. "Yet, amid EU member states' inaction, orchestrated ethnic cleansing in Gaza continues." bootstrap slideshow According to MSF, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the conflict, including 12 of its own staff members. The group said the most recent MSF staffer was killed on July 3 while attempting to retrieve a bag of flour. "The human carnage and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza are deliberate. Humanitarian aid is weaponised and blocked. Healthcare services are targeted daily," the organisation stated. MSF also condemned the EU Foreign Affairs Council's latest conclusions, adopted on Tuesday, calling them "yet another sign of the unwillingness to exert pressure on Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza." "Once again, the EU demonstrated hypocrisy and shocking double standards when it comes to protecting civilians and ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law," it said. Calling on the EU to "turn its words into actions and to end its double standards," MSF concluded by emphasising the legal and moral responsibilities of all states to stop the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. "Every state has a moral and legal responsibility to recognise and stop the ongoing atrocities in Gaza," it wrote.
GMA Network
5 days ago
- Health
- GMA Network
One in 10 children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, UN Palestinian refugee agency says
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that hit a tent sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File photo GENEVA, Switzerland - One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday. "Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan. Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip. "One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Touma said. "Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said. On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited U.N. deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave. Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing from U.N.-led aid operations - which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, using private U.S. security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the U.N. has refused to work with. On Monday, UNICEF said that last month more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza, including more than 1,000 children with severe, acute malnutrition. It said it was an increase for the fourth month in a row. — Reuters
Egypt Independent
7 days ago
- Health
- Egypt Independent
As ceasefire talks stutter, dozens are being killed every day in Gaza
CNN — The talks on a new ceasefire for Gaza have stuttered in Doha – while in Gaza itself dozens of people are being killed every day as the Israeli military consolidates its control over large parts of the territory. Hope had been high for the latest negotiations but after days of negotiations the two sides accused each other of blocking an agreement while on the ground there has been no let-up in Israel's military campaign, which resumed when the last ceasefire collapsed in March. The Palestinian health ministry reported Sunday that 139 bodies had been brought to Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours, with a number of victims still under the rubble. The number is the highest reported since July 2. The ministry said the latest casualties brought the total number of people killed since October 7, 2023 to 58,026. In just one incident on Saturday, the ministry said 27 were killed and many more injured when Israeli troops opened fire on people trying to obtain aid from a distribution site near southern Rafah run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). GHF denied the claim, saying 'there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites' on Saturday. The Israeli military also denied that anyone was injured by gunfire from its troops in the vicinity of the site but said it continued to review the reports. It told CNN Sunday it had no further comment. However, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its field hospital near the site had received 132 patients suffering from weapon-related injuries. Twenty-five were declared dead on arrival and six more died after being admitted – the largest number of fatalities since the hospital began operations in May 2024, according to the ICRC. 'This situation is unacceptable. The alarming frequency and scale of these mass casualty incidents underscore the horrific conditions civilians in Gaza are enduring,' the ICRC added. Nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid in Gaza between late May and July 7, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), when the GHF began operating. A Palestinian mother whose daughter was killed in an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza on Thursday comforts her son. Ramadan Abed/Reuters Elsewhere in Gaza, 13 people were killed Saturday in airstrikes in Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, in the north of the territory, according to Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital. Salmiya told CNN that 40 injured people had been admitted. Geolocated video showed at least one child among the victims. On Sunday morning, six children were among ten people killed in an airstrike close to a water distribution site in Nuseirat in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital. It said it had received 16 injured people. Also in central Gaza, 11 people were killed and more than 50 injured when an Israeli airstrike targeted a crowded junction in central Gaza City, according to Civil Defense officials. The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday it had destroyed weapons and tunnels used by Hamas in northern Gaza and the air force had carried out attacks on more than 150 targets across the Gaza Strip, including 'booby-trapped buildings, weapons depots, anti-tank missile and sniper positions.' Talks 'stall,' Hamas says The spike in casualties in Gaza comes as talks on agreeing a new ceasefire deal and hostage continue in Doha, with optimism having faded that an agreement can be quickly reached. US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday he was hopeful of a deal by the end of the week. 'We had four issues, and now we're down to one after two days of proximity talks,' Witkoff said. The same day Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed Gaza at length at the White House. 'We got to get that solved,' Trump said. But despite days of proximity talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas, significant gaps remain between the warring parties. An Israeli source familiar with the matter said last week that the outstanding issue was where the Israeli military would redeploy in Gaza once the ceasefire takes effect. The latest proposal called for the military to withdraw from parts of northern Gaza on the first day of a ceasefire and from parts of southern Gaza on the seventh day. The detailed maps were left to negotiations between Israel and Hamas, and that appears to be the main sticking point. Smoke rises into the sky following an Israeli attack in northern Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, on July 10. Leo Correa/AP The talks had 'stalled,' a senior Hamas official told CNN on Saturday, claiming Israel had added new conditions, 'the latest being new deployment maps for the Israeli army's presence in the Gaza Strip.' But an Israeli political source told CNN Saturday that 'Israel has shown willingness to be flexible in the negotiations' and that 'Hamas remains obstinate, sticking to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement.' Netanyahu is set to meet Sunday with his national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to discuss the negotiations, according to a source familiar with the matter. Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich – the far-right members of Netanyahu's government – have both been vocal critics of any deal with Hamas, instead calling for Israel to cut off aid to Gaza and escalate its war until the militant group is destroyed. Recent opinion surveys in Israel suggest overwhelming approval for a deal that would end the war and return all the hostages, living and dead. A poll for Israel's Channel 12 Friday said that 74% of the public believes that Israel should end the war in Gaza in exchange for the return of all the abductees in one step, with only 8% supporting the phased deal that the government is trying to promote. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel has the right to return to combat at the end of the 60-day ceasefire now on the table. Hamas is demanding a pathway to an indefinite cessation of hostilities, with the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
GMA Network
13-07-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal; 17 reported killed in latest shooting near aid
A Palestinian man from the Katoo family, with his son, mourns beside the body of his other son, who was killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid near a distribution point in Rafah, according to medics, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed CAIRO/JERUSALEM/GAZA - Progress is stalling at talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, with the sides divided over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday. The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire continued throughout Saturday, an Israeli official told Reuters, seven days since talks began. US President Donald Trump has said he hoped for a breakthrough soon based on a new US-backed ceasefire proposal. In Gaza, medics said 17 people trying to get food aid were killed on Saturday when Israeli troops opened fire, the latest mass shooting around a US-backed aid distribution system that the UN says has resulted in 800 people killed in six weeks. Witnesses who spoke to Reuters described people being shot in the head and torso. Reuters saw several bodies of victims wrapped in white shrouds as family members wept at Nasser Hospital. The Israeli military said its troops had fired warning shots, but that its review of the incident had found no evidence of anyone hurt by its soldiers' fire. Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar pushing for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war. The Israeli official blamed the impasse on Hamas, which he said "remains stubborn, sticking to positions that do not allow the mediators to advance an agreement". Hamas has previously blamed Israeli demands for blocking a deal. Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that hit a tent sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed A Palestinian source said that Hamas had rejected withdrawal maps which Israel had proposed that would leave around 40% of Gaza under Israeli control, including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza. Two Israeli sources said Hamas wanted Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March. The Palestinian source said aid issues and guarantees on an end to the war were also presenting a crisis could be resolved with more US intervention, the source said. Hamas has long demanded an agreement to end the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages are released and Hamas is dismantled as a fighting force and administration in Gaza. Shooting Saturday's reported mass shooting near an aid distribution point in Rafah was the latest in a series of such incidents that the United Nations rights office said on Friday had seen at least 798 people killed trying to get food in six weeks. "We were sitting there, and suddenly there was shooting towards us. For five minutes we were trapped under fire. The shooting was targeted. It was not random. Some people were shot in the head, some in the torso, one guy next to me was shot directly in the heart," eyewitness Mahmoud Makram told Reuters. "There is no mercy there, no mercy. People go because they are hungry but they die and come back in body bags." After partially lifting a total blockade of all goods into Gaza in late May, Israel launched a new aid distribution system, relying on a group backed by the United States to distribute food under the protection of Israeli troops. The United Nations has rejected the system as inherently dangerous and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles. Israel says it is necessary to keep militants from diverting aid. The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive. Israel's campaign against Hamas has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins. Thousands of Israelis rallied in central Tel Aviv on Saturday demanding a deal that would release all remaining hostages being held by Hamas. Protester Boaz Levi told Reuters here was there to pressure the government, "to get to a hostage deal as soon as possible because our friends, brothers, are in Gaza and it's about the time to end this war. That is why we are here." —Reuters
