Hamas mulling Gaza truce proposal as Israel kills at least 50 people

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

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 on Thursday by what the civil defence agency said was 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 Thursday's shooting.

It said he was the 12th colleague the group had lost in the Gaza war.

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

The US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has denied multiple reports of incidents near its aid sites, but video has emerged showing American GHF staff shooting at Palestinian aid seekers.

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.

Israel's attacks in Gaza have killed at least 57,268 people in Gaza, according to the devastated territory's health ministry.

Hamas said Friday it was holding consultations with other Palestinian factions on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defence agency said Israel's ongoing offensive killed more than 50 people.

The statement came ahead of a visit on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war now in its 21st month.

Two previous ceasefires brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen temporary halts in Israeli attacks, coupled with the return of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas said in a statement early Friday it was "conducting consultations with leaders of Palestinian forces and factions regarding the proposal received... from the mediators".

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

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

"They've gone through hell," he said.

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 Israeli captives seized by Hamas and other groups on October 7 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Nearly 21 months of indiscriminate Israeli war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.

Pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action's co-founder on Friday lost a bid to pause the British government's decision to ban the organisation as a "terrorist group" pending their legal challenge.

Membership of, or showing support for Palestine Action will become a criminal offence in the UK as of Saturday.

Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, asked London's High Court to stop the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, before a full hearing of her case that banning the group is unlawful, later this month.

British lawmakers this week decided to ban Palestine Action after its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two planes in protest against Britain's support for Israel.

Proscription would make it a crime to be a member of Palestine Action that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

A draft of the Gaza ceasefire formulated by Qatar would see eight living captives released on the first day, according to Haaretz, which obtained a copy.

Two more would be released on the 50th day of the proposed 60-day ceasefire, with five bodies of captives to be returned on the seventh day, five more on the 30th day, and the final eight bodies to be released on the 60th day.

Additionally, Trump is to personally announce the ceasefire. 

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has claimed to strike an Israeli tank with a Yassin 105 missile in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood on Thursday, as well as shelling a command centre in the area, as fighting between Hamas and Israel intensifies, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 138 Palestinians in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, which added that an additional 452 people were wounded.

62 people were wounded attempting to collect aid, the ministry said, adding that 300 were also wounded.

An Israeli soldier from the 53rd Armoured Battalion of the 188th brigade was killed in fighting in Khan Younis, according to the Israeli military, which added that two other soldiers from the same battalion were also severely wounded in fighting.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 41 Palestinians since dawn, according to Al Jazeera, citing sources.

Israel's opposition leader said Friday he met with the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister in Abu Dhabi and discussed efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Opposition chief Yair Lapid posted a photograph of himself with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on X, writing: "With my friend, Emirati Foreign Minister ABZ, last (Thursday) night in Abu Dhabi.

"We discussed developments in the region and efforts toward an agreement in Gaza and the return of the hostages."

The UAE's official news agency, WAM, confirmed that Lapid met with Sheikh Abdullah, but made no mention of a meeting with the UAE's president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whom Lapid had also met in Abu Dhabi in an earlier post on X.

WAM reported that Lapid and Sheikh Abdullah discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, including efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a post on X, Lapid shared an extract from an interview with Sky News Arabia in which he said: "Everyone who has influence, every Arab country, every country in the region should do its best to push Hamas to accept the agreement.

"It is for the good of the people of Gaza. It's for the good of the people of Israel. It's for the good of the hostages, of course, and it's also for the good of the entire region," he added.

Thirty more Palestinian families were forcibly displaced on Friday morning from the Arab al-Mleihat Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank, as Israeli forces and settlers continue with their bombardment and assault campaign.

After facing intense harassment, threats and violence by Israeli settlers with the protection of Israeli soldiers, families began dismantling their tents and leaving the area - Wafa reports.

A team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency has safely departed from Iran to return to the UN nuclear watchdog's headquarters in Vienna after staying in Tehran during the conflict between Israel and Iran, the agency said on Friday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi "reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible," it said in a post on X.

Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Friday that Damascus was willing to cooperate with Washington to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel.

In a statement following a phone call with his American counterpart Marco Rubio, Shaibani said he expressed Syria's "aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement".

Israeli attacks have killed 27 Palestinians since dawn, according to Al Jazeera, citing medical sources. Five of those killed were killed by Israeli fire near an aid centre near Rafah.

Nasser hospital in Gaza is operating as "one massive trauma ward" due to an influx of patients injured at non-United Nations food distribution sites, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"They've seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... and (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward," Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said on Friday when asked about the possibility of normalising ties with Israel that the kingdom's current priority is reaching a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

He was speaking during a visit to Moscow.

The United Nations human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 613 killings both at aid points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near humanitarian convoys.

"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 spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

An Israeli soldier from the Combat Engineering Corps has been killed in northern Gaza after he was hit by an army excavator, according to the Israeli military.

FlyDubai became the first international carrier to land at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport on Friday at the end of a 20-day suspension of flights that was imposed due to Israeli attacks on Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The arrival of Flight FZ1930 at Iran's biggest airport from the airline's base in the United Arab Emirates marked the start of a gradual return to normal operations in Iranian airspace, IRNA said.

FlyDubai is a low-cost carrier and a sister airline to Emirates.

Local authorities described the landing as a sign of restored stability and effective crisis management in the country's aviation sector. Passenger services were carried out under full safety and security protocols, IRNA reported.

International and domestic air traffic had been halted following Israeli airstrikes and heightened security concerns across Iranian skies.

Iran's airports have reopened for domestic and international flights, except for those in the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz, and the country's airspace is also open for international transit flights, state media reported.

Israel is responsible for "one of the cruelest genocides in modern history," the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory said, accusing Tel Aviv of weaponising Gaza as a testing ground and calling for sweeping international action, including a full international arms embargo and the suspension of trade and investment ties.

Israeli forces have stormed the neighbourhoods of Rafidia and Al-Makhfiyya within the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera, which adds that apartments in two residential buildings are being searched. 

US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours how Palestinian militant group Hamas would respond to a proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday said the army had a plan to prevent Iran from threatening Israel again after the arch-foes fought a 12-day war last month.

The Israeli military will prepare an "enforcement plan to ensure that Iran cannot threaten Israel again", Katz said in a statement, adding that "the army must prepare on the intelligence and operational level to ensure that the Air Force maintains air superiority over Tehran".