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The Latest | Hamas responds to Gaza cease-fire plan with ‘amendments,’ and US is evaluating

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VIDEO

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says ‘it is on Hamas’ to decide whether or not it will move forward
with a cease-fire plan. He spoke to reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after meeting with Israeli officials.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated 8:36 AM GMT+10, June 12, 2024

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Hamas responded Tuesday to the U.S.-backed proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying it wants some “amendments” on the deal. The militant group’s reply apparently fell short of an outright acceptance that the United States has been pushing for but kept negotiations alive over an elusive halt to the eight-month war.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said the response included “amendments that confirm the cease-fire, withdrawal, reconstruction and (prisoner) exchange.” He did not elaborate.

While supporting the broad outlines of the deal, Hamas officials have expressed wariness over whether Israel would implement its terms, particularly provisions for an eventual permanent end to fighting and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of all hostages held by the militants.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office said both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups may have committed war crimes in connection with a deadly raid by Israeli forces that freed four hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians over the weekend.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.

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What are the main sticking points in the cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas?
[Excerts
-- Ending the war
.. Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire
and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
[...] But Netanyahu says Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, and ensuring it can never again carry out an Oct. 7-style assault. A full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, where Hamas’ top leadership and much of its forces are still intact, would almost certainly leave the group in control of the territory and able to rearm.
P - That’s in part because Israel has yet to put forward a plan for Gaza’s postwar governance, and has rejected a U.S. proposal that has wide regional support because it would require major progress toward creating a Palestinian state.]
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-ceasefire-negotiations-ab6925549d8f523a6e5c61e88e7eec8a

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Currently:

— Hamas responds to Gaza cease-fire plan seeking some changes. US says it’s ‘evaluating’ the reply

— Netanyahu’s top rival left Israel’s war Cabinet. How does that affect the prime minister and Gaza?
[Excerpt: JERUSALEM (AP) — The resignation of a senior member of Israel’s war Cabinet was a dramatic show
of distrust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his strategy for the eight-month-old war with Hamas.
P - But the departure of Benny Gantz does not immediately appear to threaten Netanyahu,
who still controls a majority coalition in parliament.]
https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-gantz-netanyahu-war-hamas-hostages-b24508eea7f8b85b146427368c98b034

— UN says violence against children in conflict reached extreme levels in 2023, including in Gaza
https://apnews.com/article/un-children-conflict-gaza-russia-sudan-71671ae880f5a8064815517b2f74b739

— Dozens arrested in new pro-Palestinian protests at University of California, Los Angeles.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-campus-protests-ucla-arrests-eaf9c68ff5e3a8f6333a23ba5e5fe0e1

— UN says Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups may have committed war crimes in a deadly raid

— What does Israel’s rescue of 4 captives, and the killing of 274 Palestinians, mean for truce talks?
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hostages-rescue-hamas-gaza-biden-proposal-0faafb8a1b0e4f0050dd20efc81e937d

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here’s the latest:

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says a senior commander has been killed

BEIRUT — Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced early Wednesday the death of one of its commanders, identified as Taleb Sami Abdullah or “Hajj Abu Taleb.”

The group did not give details on the location and circumstances of his death, but identified him as a “martyr on the road to Jerusalem,” the term it uses for those killed in the current conflict with Israel. Hezbollah published a photo of Abdullah alongside Wissam al-Tawil, another senior commander killed in an Israeli strike in January.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Abdullah’s death.

Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in the past month, as Israel launched its offensive into the key southern Gaza city of Rafah. Hezbollah has also stepped up its attacks, striking deeper inside Israel and introduced new and more advanced weaponry.

Israeli drone strikes have killed hundreds of Hezbollah members since exchanges of fire began on Oct. 8, a day after the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza.

Since then, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members. The dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.

U.N. humanitarian official in central Gaza decries death toll in recent days

NUSEIRAT REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip — A U.N. humanitarian official on the ground in Gaza has decried the massive number of people killed and wounded by Israeli forces over the past week in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says nearly 300 Palestinians were killed and around 700 wounded in an operation to free four Israeli hostages held in Nuseirat, just days after an Israeli strike in the camp killed at least 33 people at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families.

“I wish I could tell you this was a special week in Gaza, but this is the ninth month that weeks like this, nightmares like this take place frequently,” said Yasmina Guerda, a U.N. OCHA Humanitarian Affairs Officer in Gaza. “Indiscriminate attacks that kill women, children, mothers, babies, fathers, brothers and sisters.”

“This violence has to end. This war has to end,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

The Israeli military says its forces came under heavy fire and responded during the complex hostage rescue operation. Israel says it follows international law and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population.

Residents of the built-up refugee camp recounted the events with horror.

“Gunshots and explosions everywhere. We are- It’s like a doomsday,” said one resident, Ahmed, who gave only his first name. His family sheltered at home, unable to leave the area because of the explosions and the sound of a drone overhead.

He’s worried Israeli forces could launch another raid like the one Saturday. “If this attack happened and I’m not home, what can happen to my daughter? To my wife?”

Hamas says it gave mediators its response to Gaza cease-fire plan with some ‘remarks’

BEIRUT — Hamas says it has given Qatari and Egyptian mediators its reply to the U.S.-backed proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, with some “remarks” on the deal.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group said they were ready to “deal positively to arrive at an agreement” and that their priority is to bring a “complete stop” to the war.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television that the group had “submitted some remarks on the proposal to the mediators.” He did not give any details.

The foreign ministries of Qatar and Egypt said in joint statement that they were examining the response and that they would continue their mediation efforts along with the United States “until an agreement is reached.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, “We’re in receipt of this reply that Hamas delivered to Qatar and to Egypt, and we are evaluating it right now.”

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Hamas to accept the proposal, saying that the U.N. Security Council’s vote in favor of the proposal made it “as clear as it possibly could be” that the world supports the plan.

UN could reconsider role in US-built aid pier if Israel used it for deadly raid, humanitarian chief says

DEAD SEA, Jordan — Allegations on social media that the Israeli military may have used the U.S.-built pier for aid shipments in Gaza in a weekend raid that killed nearly 300 Palestinians would jeopardize future humanitarian engagement in the U.S. aid project if they turn out to be true, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Tuesday. The U.S. and Israel have repeatedly denied those allegations.

Griffiths, speaking at a conference on Gaza at the Dead Sea in Jordan, said an ongoing U.N. security review was examining whether any aspect of the month-old U.S. pier project in Gaza was used in Saturday’s Israeli military operation .. https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-8-6-2024-a5d1ef04763a5ed17de2d050ebc5d490

The air and ground assault by the Israeli military killed 274 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It freed four Israeli hostages who had been held by Hamas since the group’s Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

The U.N. World Food Program, which oversees distribution of aid brought in via the pier, announced after the raid it was suspending aid work at the pier while it reassesses the safety of aid workers.

If the allegations are “true they are very concerning, because they would put at risk any future humanitarian engagement in that operation,” Griffiths said, referring to the U.S. pier project.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder says an area south of the pier was used in returning the rescued hostages to Israel. Ryder has repeatedly denied the pier, its equipment or any of its other assets were used in the deadly raid.

Griffiths was responding to a question Tuesday about whether the Israeli military operation Saturday, and the perception among Palestinians that the aid was aligned with the military, would affect the U.N.’s willingness to keep working with the U.S. sea route for aid.

While he had no proof either way, Griffiths said, the U.N. would be concerned if it found either the beach or the roads leading from the pier were used in staging Saturday’s military operation.

U.N. leadership was conducting the security assessment and would “see if it is becoming, to see if it is safe and proper and right and principled, for us to re-engage in that maritime operation.”

“You can be damn sure we are going to be very careful about what we assess and what we conclude,” he said.

Israeli forces kill 6 Palestinians in northern West Bank near Jenin

JERUSALEM — Israeli forces killed six Palestinians on Tuesday in the northern West Bank village of Kafr Dan, near the city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, as violence flares across the occupied territory.

The Israeli army said it killed four militants in a gunbattle and wounded other fighters in the village, and a helicopter struck the area near a structure the militants were using. The army statement said four guns were also found during the raid.

Over the past few years, Jenin and the surrounding areas have become a major flash point in the decadeslong conflict.

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[INSERT: brooklyn13, There are responses to attacks, and responses. I'll remind you of positions
of two very prominent and respected Israel leaders. One late, one still with us.

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.. and ..
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[...]
Mr Barak advises the government not to rush a ground operation. “We’re not facing an existential threat from Hamas,” he says.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174567534]
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Since the war in Gaza began, Israeli fire has killed more than 530 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry — some in gunbattles with Israeli forces, and others shot dead for posing no apparent threat. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also been on the rise.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous parts of the West Bank, has limited influence in the northern areas, where other armed factions have grown in power.

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule. The more than 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have Israeli citizenship.

UN chief calls for more aid to Gaza at conference co-hosted by Jordan and Egypt

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-mideast-latest-06-11-2024-bbc5468ce80daf08f8caba07bdc56266