Israeli Gaza strike kills journalist as Netanyahu rejects new truce proposal

Fierce Israeli strikes killed at least 57 Palestinians, mostly women and children, across the Gaza Strip from Wednesday evening into Thursday, with a journalist among the victims.

Journalist Hassan Sammour and 11 members of his family were killed after Israeli strikes targeted their residence in Khan Younis, which comes just days after another media worker, Hassan Eslaih, was killed in an Israeli attack while being treated at Nasser Hospital.

Israel has in recent days intensified its attacks across Gaza, with the army on Wednesday evening warning thousands of sick and displaced Palestinians to evacuate from healthcare facilities and shelters in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, including in the Al-Shifa Hospital and several schools, coinciding with a visit by US President Donald Trump to the region.

The attacks sparked Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, on Wednesday to call Israel a "genocidal state" while speaking at the Spanish parliament, adding that Madrid "does not do business" with such a country.

It came shortly before Trump said he wanted the US to "take" Gaza and turn it into a "freedom zone".

"I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone," the US leader said in Qatar.

"I'd be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone."

The comments have garnered backlash, particularly after the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced it will start distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month, after approval from Israeli officials.

While Gaza is in dire need of emergency aid following over two months of suffocating Israeli blockade, the aid distribution plan has been highly criticised as it bypasses long-held infrastructure established by the UN for the enclave and will be extremely limited in scale.

"The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) today announced that it will launch operations in the Gaza Strip before the end of the month. This follows discussions with Israeli officials to allow the flow of transitional aid into Gaza under existing mechanisms while construction of GHF's Secure Distribution Sites (SDS) is completed," a statement from the organisation reads.

Israel and the US's plan to use private military contractors to provide aid in some parts of Gaza will fail to reach some of the enclave's most vulnerable people, the UN and other aid groups have repeatedly warned.

Human Rights Watch has also denounced Israeli plans to continue displacing Palestinians into a single "humanitarian area" if no deal is reached with Hamas by mid-May.

"Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza’s 2 million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington," said Federico Borello, interim executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination."

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in a statement said: "We are witnessing, in real time, the creation of conditions for the eradication of Palestinian lives in Gaza".

The medics group also flagged that the obstruction of humanitarian aid is a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2720, which calls for the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in need.

Netanyahu rejects truce proposal

The latest developments come as Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a new truce proposal presented by the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, during his visit to Doha, after receiving positive signals from Hamas.

The Hebrew Channel 12 reported that "the US envoy developed a comprehensive plan aimed at returning all Israeli detainees and removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip".

The reports further noted that the proposal "was accepted by the mediators" and that "nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at this stage, continues to talk about a partial deal that does not include an end to the war".

Hebrew-language media also stated, "dramatic discussions are taking place in Netanyahu’s office, amid intense pressure from the US on both Israel and Hamas".

In response, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdelrahman al-Thani, told reporters in an interview on Wednesday that Israeli attacks on Gaza this week demonstrated its lack of interest in seeing a ceasefire deal come to fruition.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed over 61,700 Palestinians since October 2023, levelling entire neighbourhoods and plunging the enclave into a deep humanitarian crisis.