WASHINGTON
\nUS President Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centers in the territory. Asked by reporters how close a ceasefire was between Israel and Hamas, Trump said: \u201cWe think within the next week, we\u2019re going to get a ceasefire.\u201d
\nThe United States brokered a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in the waning days of former president Joe Biden\u2019s administration, with support from Trump\u2019s incoming team.
\nIsrael broke the ceasefire in March, launching new devastating attacks on Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
\nQatar\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman says mediators are engaging with Israel and Hamas to build on momentum from this week\u2019s ceasefire with Iran and work towards a truce in the Gaza Strip.
\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t utilise this window of opportunity and this momentum, it\u2019s an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don\u2019t want to see that again,\u201d Majed Al-Ansari said in a Friday interview with AFP.
\nIsrael also stopped all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months, drawing warnings of famine.
\nIsrael has since allowed a resumption of food through the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which involves US security contractors with Israeli troops at the periphery.
\nUnited Nations officials on Friday said the GHF system was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was \u201caligning itself with Hamas.\u201d
\nEyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians at distribution centers over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants.
\nThe Israeli military has denied targeting people and GHF has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites.
\nBut following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid.
\n\u201cThe new aid distribution system has become a killing field,\u201d with people \u201cshot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families,\u201d said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA).
\n\u201cThis abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA,\u201d he wrote on X.
\nThe health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.
\nThe country\u2019s civil defense agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid.
\n\u201cPeople are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families,\u201d said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
\n\u201cThe search for food must never be a death sentence.\u201d
\nMedical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort \u201cslaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.\u201d
\nThat drew an angry response from Israel, which said GHF had provided 46 million meals in Gaza.
\n\u201cThe UN is doing everything it can to oppose this effort. In doing so, the UN is aligning itself with Hamas, which is also trying to sabotage the GHF\u2019s humanitarian operations,\u201d the foreign ministry said.
\nIsrael\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a report in left-leaning daily Haaretz that military commanders had ordered troops to shoot at crowds near aid distribution sites to disperse them even when they posed no threat.
\nHaaretz said the military advocate general, the army\u2019s top legal authority, had instructed the military to investigate \u201csuspected war crimes\u201d at aid sites.
\nThe Israeli military declined to comment to AFP on the claim.
\nNetanyahu said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz that their country \u201cabsolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels\u201d and \u201cmalicious falsehoods\u201d in the Haaretz article.
\nGaza\u2019s civil defense agency said 80 Palestinians had been killed on Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory, including 10 who were waiting for aid.
\nThe Israeli military said it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed.
\nCivil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by GHF, and one more in a separate incident in the center of the territory, where the army denied shooting \u201cat all.\u201d
\nAnother three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.
\nElsewhere, eight people were killed \u201cafter an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons\u201d in northern Gaza.
\nMeanwhile, Hamas\u2019s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said they shelled an Israeli vehicle east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Friday.
\nThe Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas-ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they attacked Israeli soldiers in at least two other locations near Khan Yunis in coordination with the Al-Qassam Brigades.
\nHamas\u2019s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
\nIsrael\u2019s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,331 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza\u2019s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON US President Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centers in the territory. Asked by reporters how close a ceasefire was between Israel and Hamas, Trump said: \u201cWe think within the next week, we\u2019re going to get a ceasefire.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-487217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n