Hamas ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks 'immediately' as Israel continues strikes on Gaza

HAMAS SAYS IT has given a “positive” response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but said further talks were needed on implementation.

It was not clear if Hamas’ statement meant it had accepted the proposal from US President Donald Trump for a 60-day ceasefire.

Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war, now nearly 21 months old.

In a statement issued late Friday, Hamas said it has “delivered the response to the mediators, which was positive”.

The statement added that Hamas is ready to start talks “immediately” on a proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, after holding consultations with other Palestinian factions.

“The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place” the terms of a draft truce proposal received from mediators, the militant group said.

Hours earlier, Netanyahu vowed to bring home all the hostages in Gaza after coming under massive domestic pressure over their fate.

“I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them,” Netanyahu said.

Trump said on Thursday he wanted “safety for the people of Gaza”.

“They’ve gone through hell,” he said.

60-day truce proposal

A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposals included “a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip” – thought to number 22 – “in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Hamas in October 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s previous blockades of the region, as well as 21 months of air and ground attacks, have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where the UN has warned that daily food intake has fallen well below ‘survival’ level.

Israel’s continued assault on the region has killed at least 57,130 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian territory’s health ministry whose figures the United Nations considers its figures reliable. The majority of those killed have been civilians. 

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Civil defence says aid-seekers killed

Gaza civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 52 people today.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports, except a handful of incidents for which it requested coordinates and timeframes.

In a separate statement, it said a 19-year-old sergeant “fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip”.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.

Mughayyir said the Palestinians killed included five who were shot while waiting for aid near a US-run site near Rafah in southern Gaza, and several who were waiting for aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the centre of the territory.

They were the latest in a spate of deaths near aid distribution centres in the devastated territory, which UN agencies have warned is on the brink of famine.

At Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, crowds mourned 16 people killed yesterday by a shooting close to a nearby aid centre.

“I lost my brother in the American distribution centre that they set up to feed people,” cried one mourner, Narmin Abu Muammar.

“They are killing people, not feeding them.”

Medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders said Abdullah Hammad, who recently finished a contract working for it, was among those killed in yesterday’s shooting.

It said he was the twelfth colleague the group had lost since October 2023.

“We demand an end to this bloodshed,” MSF said in a statement.

The US and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distanced itself from reports of deadly incidents near its sites.

Displaced civilians

The civil defence official told AFP that eight people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli air strike on the tents of displaced civilians near Khan Yunis.

Mughayyir said eight more people were killed in two other strikes on camps on the coast, including one that killed two children early Friday.

The Israeli military said it was operating throughout Gaza “to dismantle Hamas military capabilities”.