BURSTDonald Trump said on Friday that Hamas’s decision should come within 24 hours
Hamas leaders are close to accepting a proposed deal for a ceasefire in Gaza but want stronger guarantees that any pause in hostilities would lead to a permanent end to the 20-month war, sources close to the militant Islamist organisation have said.
Hamas officials met on Thursday in Istanbul to discuss the ceasefire proposals and later issued a statement confirming they were talking to other “Palestinian factions” before formally announcing a response.
When asked by a reporter on Thursday whether he still wanted the US to take over Gaza, Trump said: “I want the people of Gaza to be safe more importantly.” He added: “They’ve gone through hell.” Trump first floated his plan for a “Riviera of the Middle East”, which included ethnically cleansing Gaza, in February.
At least 73 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday including 15 killed in an attack on a school, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. Those killed included 38 people waiting for humanitarian aid at three separate locations in central and southern Gaza, and a child killed by a drone in Jabalia in the north.
Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before the imminent ceasefire talks, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for many months this week. In all, about 300 people may have been killed this week and thousands more injured, according to officials.
Among those targeted by Israel was one of Gaza’s most senior doctors, Dr Marwan al-Sultan. Tributes were paid on Thursday to the renowned cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in the Gaza Strip, who was killed alongside several members of his family. He was the 70th healthcare worker to be killed by Israeli attacks in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel and for global corporations to be held accountable for “profiting from genocide” in Gaza. A report by Francesca Albanese to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday pointed to the deep involvement of companies from around the world in supporting Israel during its 21-month onslaught in Gaza.
Iran on Thursday affirmed its commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, as it accused Germany of “malice” over its criticism of Tehran’s decision to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. “Iran remains committed to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and its Safeguards Agreement,” foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X. “The explicit German support for the bombing of Iran has obliterated the notion that the German regime harbors anything but malice towards Iranians,” he added in response to a German foreign office post criticising the move.
The producer of a film about medics in Gaza that was dropped by the BBC has accused the corporation of trying to gag him and others over its decision not to show the documentary. Gaza: Doctors under Attack, which was finally broadcast on Channel 4 on Wednesday night, recounts how hospitals in the territory have been overwhelmed, bombed and raided. Ben de Pear, the programme’s executive producer and a former Channel 4 News editor, accused the BBC of attempting to stop him talking about its “painful journey” to the screen with the use of legal gagging clauses.
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