Middle East: Hamas gives 'positive response' on Gaza truce

Hamas' "positive" response to a proposal from US President Donald Trump for a 60-day ceasefire signaled a potential breakthrough in efforts to end the war in Gaza.

Trump said this week that Israel had accepted the conditions necessary for the ceasefire, although Israel has not yet publicly confirmed this.

The exact terms of the mediators' new proposal remain unclear.

It is believed to include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid to the territory.

It also reportedly calls for the release of a number of the remaining 50 hostages taken during Hamas' terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive.

Two previous ceasefires brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States led to temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of some Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas is demanding a deal that ends the war, while Israel insists on the right to resume military action if talks fail after the proposed 60-day truce.

Hamas said it has delivered a "positive response" to mediators regarding the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.

In a statement, the militant group said it was "ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place" for implementing the ceasefire, signaling a potential breakthrough in the ongoing conflict.

However, it remained unclear whether the militant group had accepted the proposals, which Israel has already accepted.

The group also said it has "delivered the response to the mediators, which was positive."

Israel isn't letting up on its attacks in Gaza, and now the summer heat is bringing more misery. With little shade or clean drinking water in the cramped tent camps, the sea offers the only relief from the sweltering heat and beating sun.

The Islamist group Hamas — considered a terrorist group by the US, EU and Israel — has announced that it is in consultations with other Palestinian factions over a proposed ceasefire truce in Gaza. 

US President Donald Trump, who will reportedly welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Monday, said he expects Hamas to respond to his "final proposal" within the next 24 hours. 

Two previous temporary ceasefires led to pauses in fighting as well as the exchange of Hamas-held hostages and Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners.

In its Friday statement, Hamas said, "The movement is conducting consultations with leaders of Palestinian forces and factions regarding the proposal received... from the mediators."

Hours prior, Israeli PM Netanyahu said, "I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them."

The deal currently on the table would include a 60-day truce as well as another exchange of hostages for prisoners.  
On Friday, health authorities in Gaza said the death toll from Israel's military response to the deadly Hamas attack that set off the current conflict in October 2023 had surpassed 57,130. 

Roughly 1,200 people in Israel were killed by Hamas and other militant groups on October 7, 2023.

Syria's new government has expressed its willingness to return to a disengagement deal with Israel.

Following a call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said Syria has an "aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement."

Israel has ramped up its attacks against Syria since the fall of Bashar Assad, who was replaced by a government formed mainly of members from the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group.

Israel and Syria have technically been at war since 1948, but they agreed to a disengagement line following a 1973 conflict that saw a UN-patrolled buffer zone set up between Israeli-occupied areas of the Golan Heights and the rest of Syria.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has previously expressed interest in normalizing ties with Syria, but rejected the option of returning the Golan Heights.

Syrian state media reported on Wednesday that "statements concerning signing a peace agreement with the Israeli occupation at this time are considered premature."

Palestinian media say at least 15 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israel’s military has carried out air strikes in several parts of the territory in recent hours, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Medical sources in Gaza said the casualties occurred in Al-Mawasi near Khan Younis. The report has not been independently verified, and Israel’s military has not yet commented on the latest strikes in the area.

Nasser Hospital in Gaza has been operating as "one massive trauma ward" as more patients wounded near non-UN food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) flood in, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday.

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva that medical teams at Nasser have seen daily injuries for weeks.

"They've seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... [the] majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward," he said.

Hundreds of patients, mostly young boys, have been treated for traumatic injuries such as bullet wounds to the head, chest and knees at Nasser hospital, the WHO said.

Peeperkorn said health workers and witnesses confirmed the victims had been trying to reach aid at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites.

He described the case of a 13-year-old boy shot in the head and a 21-year-old left paraplegic by a bullet lodged in his neck.

"There is no chance for any reversal or any proper treatment. Young lives are being destroyed forever," Peeperkorn said, urging an end to the fighting and more food aid for Gaza.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) says it has recorded more than 600 killings in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and at distribution points run by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since it began operating in late May.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the office could not assign responsibility for the deaths but added, "it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points" operated by GHF.

"We have recorded 613 killings, both at GHF points and near humanitarian convoys — this is a figure as of June 27. Since then... there have been further incidents," Ravina Shamdasani,

The OHCHR says 509 of the deaths were "GHF-related," meaning they happened at or near its sites.

"Information keeps coming in," Shamdasani said. "This is ongoing and it is unacceptable."

The tally was verified using strict methodology and relied partly on reports from hospitals that receive the dead, Shamdasani said.

The US- and Israel-backed GHF began handing out food packages at the end of May, using a delivery model the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral.

GHF has repeatedly denied that any killings or injuries have happened on its sites, while stressing that casualties in the vicinity of the sites are under Israeli military purview.

Welcome to our latest coverage of events in and around Israel and the Palestinian territories on Friday, July 4.

The UN human rights office says hundreds of Palestinians have now been killed near humanitarian convoys and aid distribution sites since late May.

It says the same scenes keep repeating as desperate families try to reach basic aid.

Most of these deaths have been recorded around sites run by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The UN hasn’t pinned formal blame for the deaths, but has said that Israeli forces have shelled and fired near crowds gathering for food.

Stay tuned below for this and more of the latest developments concerning Israel and the crisis in the Middle East: