A senior Hamas official told AFP the group was looking to end the war but had reservations about the ceasefire plan
A senior Hamas official overnight has told the AFP news agency that at the moment the group’s response to the proposed truce deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar was “negative”, but that discussions were still under way.
The group’s aim remains an “end to this war”, Suhail al-Hindi told AFP. The group is understood to be seeking a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the ground in Gaza, with the proposal that there would then be a lengthy rebuilding programme for the territory during which it undertook not to rebuild any military facilities.
Israel’s leaders were under renewed pressure to allow more aid into Gaza on Wednesday after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Benjamin Netanyahu to “accelerate and sustain improvements” seen during recent days in the amount of humanitarian assistance reaching the territory.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met leaders in Israel and also the families of some of those held hostage in Gaza. He told the families to “keep the faith”, and said after meeting president Isaac Herzog “Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home – and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”
Hamas has asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to provide clarity on the terms of the latest ceasefire proposal being discussed as part of negotiations with Israel, an Egyptian official told Associated Press on Wednesday. The official said Hamas wants clear terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza and to ensure that the second stage of the deal will include discussing the gradual and complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip.
Jordan said some Israeli settlers attacked two of its aid convoys that were on the way to Gaza on Wednesday. It said the attack resulted in the dumping of some of their cargo, which included food, flour, and other necessities, in the streets. Honenu, an Israeli legal aid agency, reported that four men who had “blocked aid trucks going to Gaza” as they were passing near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim were arrested by Israeli police.
The Hamas-led health ministry has issued updated casualty figures, claiming that at least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed and 77,765 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
The University of California in Los Angeles was reeling on Wednesday following a late-night violent attack by counter-demonstrators on a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, as the state’s governor condemned a slow response from law enforcement to some of the worst violence seen since students across the US intensified their protests in support of Gaza.
Crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges spread on Wednesday after campus hotspots intensified overnight, leading to some violence and hundreds more arrests amid widespread controversy over universities calling in police and claims about “outside agitators” driving escalation.
Colombia’s president has announced that his government will sever diplomatic relations with Israel, in the latest escalation of a furious row between the countries over the war in Gaza. Addressing a May Day rally in Bogotá on Wednesday, Gustavo Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide”. “Tomorrow [Thursday] diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be severed … for having a government, for having a president that is genocidal,” Petro said.
