Israel reviews 'workable' Hamas ceasefire response as airstrikes and mass starvation kill dozens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said France's decision to recognise a State of Palestine "rewards terror" and poses an existential threat to Israel.

Netanyahu said in a statement that the move "risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became", which would be "a launch pad to annihilate Israel -- not to live in peace beside it".

"Let's be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel," he added.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas's deputy Hussein al-Sheikh on Thursday welcomed France's intent to recognise a State of Palestine, thanking President Emmanuel Macron.

"This position reflects France's commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state," Sheikh said.

France will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday.

"True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine. I will make a formal announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September," the French head of state wrote on X and Instagram.

Including France, Palestinian statehood is now recognised by 142 countries, according to an AFP tally, though Israel and the United States strongly oppose recognition.

France would be the most significant European power to recognise a Palestinian state.

"The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and rescue the civilian population," Macron wrote.

"We must finally build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability and enable it, by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognising Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East."

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would hold an "emergency call" Friday with France and Germany on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, urging a ceasefire and steps towards Palestinian statehood.

"I will hold an emergency call with E3 partners tomorrow, where we will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace," he said in a statement Thursday.

"A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis."

Israel says it has carried out fresh air strikes in southern Lebanon, targeting what it described as Hezbollah-linked sites.

In a statement on X, the Israeli army said its fighter jets “attacked military sites”, including “weapons storage facilities and a rocket launcher”.

It also said it was behind another strike earlier in the day.

Earlier on Thursday, a drone strike on a car in the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab killed one person.

Israel has continued near-daily attacks on Lebanon, despite agreeing to a US-backed ceasefire in November.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Palestinian militant group Hamas should not view his country's willingness to reach a truce deal in Gaza as a "weakness".

"We are working to reach another deal for the release of our hostages. But if Hamas interprets our willingness to reach a deal as weakness, as an opportunity to dictate surrender terms that would endanger the State of Israel, it is gravely mistaken," he said in a speech.

A man was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car in Aita al-Shaab, southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry confirmed.

State news agency NNA said the victim, an iron collector, had dropped his children home and was returning from a grocery store when the drone fired a missile at his car.

Iran condemned on Thursday a symbolic vote by Israeli lawmakers endorsing the annexation of the occupied West Bank, which Tehran's foreign ministry said proved Israel's "expansionist" motives.

The non-binding vote on Wednesday was "another sign of the expansionist... character of this regime, and we condemn it", said a foreign ministry statement.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that famine in Gaza is "silently unfolding" as child malnutrition surges and families lose all access to food and care.

"Parents are too hungry to care for their children," he wrote on X, adding that those reaching UNRWA clinics "don’t have the energy, food or means to follow medical advice".

He said 6,000 trucks loaded with aid remain stuck in Jordan and Egypt. "Allow unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance into Gaza," he urged.

Irish MEP Lynn Boylan, who co-signed a letter urging the EU to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel, accused the bloc of double standards over Gaza.

"Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives," Boylan told Al Jazeera. "We saw the swift action that was taken when Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, and we haven’t seen any action from the EU" regarding Israel's bombardment and starvation blockade of Gaza.

Boylan also said Israel holds significant sway in Brussels, creating a "chilling effect" on criticism. "If you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes you’re witnessing, there is immediately backlash and attack," she said.

Bishara Bahbah, a mediator involved in the Doha negotiations, said Hamas has delivered a constructive reply to Israel’s latest ceasefire terms.

"Hamas this morning gave its response to the Israeli proposal on redeployment and a prisoner exchange," Bahbah wrote on Facebook.

"Hamas’s response has been real and positive. Now Israel must enter into serious and swift negotiations to reach a ceasefire. Everyone is waiting for relief. The people of Gaza have suffered enough killing, destruction, and starvation."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Thursday it was recalling its Gaza negotiating team to Israel for consultations, a day after the Palestinian group Hamas handed its response on a ceasefire proposal to mediators.

An Israeli woman has been charged with plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, prosecutors said on Thursday.

According to the indictment, the woman, whose identity is still unknown, was "engaged in political protest activities" against the government and decided to kill Netanyahu after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Her plan was discovered after she sought to acquire a rocket-propelled grenade to carry out the assassination, the prosecutor's office at the Tel Aviv district court wrote in the indictment.

A meeting between Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer is expected to take place in Paris on Thursday, a senior diplomat told AFP.

"There will be a Syrian-Israeli security meeting in Paris today, and Tom Barrack will facilitate it," the diplomat said, referring to the US special envoy for Syria.

The diplomat added that Shaibani and Dermer, ministers from the two countries technically at war, will meet.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have now killed 41 Palestinians since dawn on Thursday, medical sources said.

The latest killings were confirmed by staff at the Nasser Hospital, after seven bodies were transported to the building following heavy Israeli air raids on Khan Younis.

A European Commission spokesperson said on Thursday that the EU is currently assessing the situation in Gaza and that all options remain on the table if Israel does not deliver on an agreement made with the EU earlier this month about improving the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

This agreement includes the substantial increase of daily trucks for food and non-food items to enter Gaza, the opening of several other crossing points in both the northern and southern areas, and the reopening of the Jordanian and Egyptian aid routes. 

Verified videos posted on social media show Israeli bulldozers tearing down Palestinian property in the Ein el-Hilweh area of the northern Jordan Valley.

Soldiers can be seen pushing residents away as the demolition takes place. The UN says more than 2,700 structures have been destroyed since 2024, displacing at least 5,600 Palestinians.

An Israeli attack on a tent sheltering displaced people west of Gaza City has killed at least two people, Gaza's emergency and ambulance services told Al Jazeera Arabic.

Iran is ready to resume nuclear talks with the United States as long as some principles are respected, deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Thursday, a day before a meeting with European powers in Istanbul.

The Iranian diplomat said talks could resume as long as Tehran's rights under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are recognised, Washington builds trust with Tehran and guarantees that negotiations will not lead to renewed military action against Iran.

US envoy Tom Barrack is set to meet on Thursday with Israel's minister for strategic affairs and Syria's foreign minister in Paris to discuss security matters relating to southern Syria, Axios' Barak Ravid reported on X, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Two more people have died from starvation and malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry has said.

This brings the total number of deaths from famine-related causes to 113 since Israel’s blockade and military offensive began. Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of "mass starvation" in the enclave, where food supplies remain critically low.

An explosion rocked the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on Thursday, state-run Al Ekhbariya TV reported, and an unspecified number of people were killed or injured, the local emergency operations department said.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known, the TV report said.

Hamas says it targeted an Israeli command site in the so-called Morag Corridor in southern Gaza with a short-range missile overnight.

The Israeli army claimed the projectile was launched from Khan Younis but said it landed about 250 metres from a GHF aid distribution centre in Rafah.

Two Palestinian teenagers, aged 15 and 17, were shot dead by Israeli forces in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, early Thursday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The bodies of Ahmad Ali Asaad Ashira al-Salah and Muhammad Khaled Alian Issa were withheld by the Israeli army after the raid, according to the report.

Gaza’s Government Media Office has warned that the enclave requires at least 500,000 bags of flour each week to prevent a “comprehensive humanitarian collapse.”

Hospitals have already recorded more than 115 deaths caused by famine and malnutrition amid Israel’s near-total blockade, the office said in a statement on Telegram.

It dismissed reports of hundreds of aid trucks entering Gaza as “completely untrue,” accusing them of aligning with “the misleading narrative of the Israeli occupation” and obscuring the scale of the crisis.

The office urged all countries to immediately break the siege, open border crossings permanently, and allow the entry of baby formula and essential aid for the 2.4 million besieged residents.

Nine Israelis were injured in a ramming attack at a bus stop in Beit Lid and Kfar Yona, near the city of Netanya, Israeli media reported on Thursday. Six of the injured were in moderate condition and three sustained minor injuries, according to Israel’s emergency medical services, which treated eight people on the scene.

Israeli media said the driver managed to flee. Israeli police found the vehicle in Beit Lid and launched a large-scale manhunt using helicopters, canine units, and special patrol forces. Checkpoints leading to the central West Bank have been closed amid fears the suspect may have crossed into the territory.

The White House says US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Middle Eastern officials in Europe to discuss the Gaza ceasefire proposal and a potential hostage deal.

Washington says it is pushing for an agreement "as soon as possible" amid mounting international pressure to put an end to Israel's war on Gaza.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says famine in Gaza is "man-made" and worsening by the day.

"I don’t know what else to call it other than a mass famine," he warned, urging immediate aid access.

Images emerging from Gaza show emaciated children and elderly civilians pleading for food and widespread destruction among medical facilities. 

Israeli air strikes on central Gaza have killed at least 23 Palestinians since early Thursday, medical staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs and Al-Awda hospitals report.

Residential areas were hit, leaving civilians among the casualties. Emergency crews are still searching the rubble, and the toll is expected to rise.

Israel is examining Hamas’s latest response to a Gaza ceasefire proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel the reply is "workable",  hinting at a possible breakthrough after months of deadlock.

Hamas said it had submitted its response "on behalf of Palestinian factions" to mediators in Doha. According to AFP, the reply includes amendments on aid access, Israeli military withdrawal areas, and guarantees for a permanent end to the war.