White House rejects Hamas response as ‘totally unacceptable’ as Israel says it has killed Mohammad Sinwar

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim later denied any rejection of Witkoff’s proposal, which would also secure the release of 1200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israel. But Naim said Israel’s response was incompatible with what had been agreed and accused the United States envoy of acting with “complete bias” in favour of Israel.

A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that the amendments Hamas is seeking include the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees that the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.

Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.

Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.

Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”

The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March after a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts, and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.

The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever-narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.

Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas, and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.

It began allowing a small amount of food and medical supplies into the territory two weeks ago in response to pressure from its allies, and has established a controversial new aid distribution system, which the United Nations has rejected. Aid distribution centres have since been overrun and warehouses ransacked.

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On Saturday, Palestinians desperate for food in the enclave blocked and offloaded 77 food trucks, the United Nations World Food Program said. The aid, mostly flour, was taken before the WFP trucks could reach their destination.

“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.

A witness in Khan Younis, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the UN convoy was stopped at a makeshift roadblock and offloaded by desperate civilians in their thousands.

While Israel has allowed some aid to enter the territory over the past two weeks, aid organisations say far from enough is getting into Gaza.

Israel’s military body in charge of aid co-ordination in Gaza, COGAT, said 579 trucks of aid had entered over the past week. The UN has said 600 a day were entering under the previous ceasefire that Israel ended with new bombardment.

The WFP said the fear of starvation in Gaza is high. “We need to flood communities with food for the next few days to calm anxieties,” it said. It added that it has more than 140,000 tonnes of food – enough to feed Gazans for two months – ready to be brought in.

The United Nations said earlier this month that Israeli authorities have forced them to use unsecured routes within areas controlled by Israel’s military in the eastern areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, where armed gangs are active and trucks have been stopped.

Aid sent is ‘a mockery’

The raid on the trucks was the latest in a series of incidents that underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.

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The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza was the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.

“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the main UN relief organisation for Palestinians, said in a
message on X.

Israel has allowed a limited number of trucks from the WFP and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza, but repeated incidents of looting have hampered deliveries.

A separate system, run by a US- and Israeli-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites, but these efforts were also hampered by panic and chaos.

Aid groups have refused to co-operate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed into Gaza falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.

Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups, which were attacking some of the aid convoys.

He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation”.

Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centres and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.

It accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.

Hamas denies looting supplies, however, and has executed several suspected looters.

Israel began its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1200 people, according to Israeli tallies, while 251 were taken as hostages into Gaza.

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The campaign has laid waste to large areas of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians and destroying or damaging most of its buildings, leaving most of the population in makeshift shelters.

Reuters, AP

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