The situation crawls along on several fronts….The Trump Admin cease -fire effort….
The White House has sent an Israeli-backed cease-fire proposal to Hamas that would allow the flow of aid into Gaza amid growing international pressure to end the fighting and devastation in the territory, according to American and Israeli officials.
President Trump and his envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, submitted the framework to Hamas after Israel signed off on the proposal, according to Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. An Israeli official familiar with the details said the initial phase of the deal would include a 60-day cease-fire and a flow of aid through U.N.-run operations. Hamas officials stopped short of rejecting the latest proposal but suggested it did not contain strong-enough guarantees on ending the war.
“Those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a cease-fire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home,” Ms. Leavitt said during a news briefing at the White House.
A State Department spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, said that while it was not clear if Hamas would support a cease-fire proposal backed by Israel, there was “some important optimism” among officials about a potential deal, adding that the latest proposal held “significant promise.”
But it remained to be seen whether the new proposal could resolve the main sticking point between the two sides. Israel is insisting on having the option to resume fighting if Hamas does not surrender and disarm. Hamas is demanding firm guarantees that a temporary cease-fire would lead to a permanent cessation of hostilities and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza….
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Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas, the White House said Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, expressed optimism earlier this week about brokering an agreement to halt the Israel-Hamas war and return more of the hostages captured in the attack that ignited it.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Israel “backed and supported” the new proposal.
Hamas officials gave the Israeli-approved draft a cool response, but said they wanted to study the proposal more closely before giving a formal answer.
“The Zionist response, in essence, means perpetuating the occupation and continuing the killing and famine,” Bassem Naim, a top Hamas official, told The Associated Press. He said it “does not respond to any of our people’s demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine.”
Nonetheless, he said the group would study the proposal “with all national responsibility.”…
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New Food Op opens with mob action aimed at getting food….
A new Israeli-backed aid group opened a third hub in Gaza on Thursday to try to get more food to a desperate population. But more chaotic scenes unfolded during the opening, similar to the launch of the first center this week.
The United Nations and other aid organizations have declined to cooperate with the new aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, describing it as a militarized distribution operation that violates humanitarian principles.
On Thursday, crowds of hungry Palestinians scrambled for handouts and dodged stun grenades that were fired outside the new aid hub to disperse crowds, according to videos verified by The New York Times. Some, carrying their aid bundles, climbed over earthen walls surrounding the site in Al-Bureij, in central Gaza. It was unclear who had fired the stun grenades, but the Israeli military denied involvement.
A day earlier, a large crowd of desperate Palestinians broke into a warehouse run by the U.N.’s World Food Program in Gaza in search of food and flour. Program officials said initial reports indicated that two people had been killed….
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Israeli attacks continue with Hamas Hunting….
Israel ended a previous cease-fire in March and has since embarked on a new phase of fighting, advancing slowly and expanding its control over larger sections of the territory.
Israel bombed Gaza again on Thursday, and Gaza’s health ministry said hospitals had received more than 60 bodies over the past 24 hours.
Khalil Degran, a spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, said his facility had received 20 bodies on Thursday morning after a reported Israeli airstrike in Al-Bureij, a few miles to the north.
“The situation is catastrophic and dire,” he said. “We simply don’t have the capacity to provide adequate medical care.”
The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas cell in the area of Al-Bureij and was reviewing the attack after reports that uninvolved civilians had been killed.
Late on Thursday night, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, posted an evacuation warning on social mediacovering five areas around northern Gaza, telling residents to move west ahead of expanded “offensive activity,” which he said was intended “to destroy the capabilities of the terrorist organizations.”….
image…A dense crowd with boxes and bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Thursday.Credit…Mariam Dagga/Associated Press
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