GAZA -- Hamas's Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labor Ehab al-Ghussein was killed in an Israeli airstrike west of Gaza City on Sunday, said Palestinian sources.

GAZA -- At least 16 Palestinians were killed, most of them children and women, in an Israeli bombing of a school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

The Al-Jaouni school was bombed for the third time since the onset of the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, WAFA said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report about the incident, according to Israeli media.

In a statement on Saturday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said the attacked school sheltered about 7,000 displaced people, adding that since the outbreak of the conflict, the Israeli army has bombed more than 17 schools and displacement and shelter centers inside the Nuseirat refugee camp.

UN statistics estimated earlier this week that the number of people internally displaced within Gaza has risen to 1.9 million people, or about nine out of ten people in the Strip.

During the past 24 hours, the Israeli military killed 29 people and wounded 100 others, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday morning. Among those killed were five local journalists, raising the death toll of journalists since Oct. 7 to 158, according to the media office.

The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached 38,098, with 87,705 injuries since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out in early October 2023, according to health authorities in Gaza.

CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden on Thursday he has decided to send a delegation to resume stalled negotiations on a hostage release deal with Hamas, their administrations said.

A source from the Israeli negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a real chance of achieving agreement after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal.

"The proposal put forward by Hamas includes a very significant breakthrough," the source said.

The Israeli response to the Hamas proposal, submitted via mediators, was in marked contrast to past instances during the nearly nine-month conflict in Gaza, where Israel has said the conditions attached by Hamas were not acceptable.

An Israeli official said the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency would lead the Israeli delegation for talks.

Netanyahu was scheduled later on Thursday to have consultations with his negotiating team, and then discuss the hostage release talks with his security cabinet.

Israel received Hamas' response on Wednesday to a proposal made public at the end of May by Biden that would include the release of about 120 hostages held in Gaza and a cease-fire in the enclave.

A Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts told Reuters that Hamas has shown flexibility over some clauses that would allow a framework agreement to be reached should Israel approve.

Two Hamas officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hamas has said any deal must end the conflict and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel maintains it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.

It was not clear where the Israeli delegation would go to resume talks. Prior efforts to end the Gaza conflict were mediated by Egypt and Qatar, with talks held in both locations.

In Gaza, Palestinians reacted cautiously to the prospect of renewed talks.

"We hope that this is the end of the war, we are exhausted and we can't stand more setbacks and disappointments," said Youssef, a father of two, now displaced in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said the Palestinian death toll in the nearly nine months of conflict had passed 38,000, with 87,445 wounded.

Ongoing strikes

An Israeli strike hit a school in Gaza City and the Civil Emergency Service said five Palestinians were killed and others wounded, while other Israeli strikes on Gaza City's old town on Thursday killed a woman and wounded several others, medics said.

The Israeli military said it had been operating to dismantle Hamas' military and administrative capabilities. It said it was acting in accordance with international law and taking feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties.

In another development, Israel's regulatory body has approved plans for building 5,295 new settler homes throughout the occupied West Bank, a settlement monitoring group said on Thursday.

Peace Now, a settlement watchdog based in Israel, stated in a news release that the Higher Planning Council of the Civil Administration approved the new construction during a two-day discussion on Wednesday and Thursday.

The approval of the new settler housing units came a day after Israeli authorities approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers of land in the West Bank, marking the largest single appropriation in about three decades.

These moves are likely to stoke further tensions in the region, which is already experiencing increasing violence.

Xinhua

UNITED NATIONS -- China on Tuesday called on Israel to fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian law and heed the international community's call to ensure the rapid and safe entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

In remarks at the UN Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong highlighted the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, exacerbated by extreme shortages of essential supplies and dire health conditions.

He noted that "millions of people are struggling with hunger, disease, pain, and despair," describing the situation as a man-made humanitarian disaster and a serious breach of international law.

Fu pointed out that Gaza has been under blockade for nine months, with over 2 million people living in an "open-air prison" without adequate access to water, electricity, food, medication, and fuel.

He criticized the closure of the Rafah crossing due to Israeli military operations, which has left thousands of trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies waiting in long lines.

"The existing crossing points are far from being able to meet the demand for humanitarian aid," Fu said, emphasizing that land transport routes are key to expanding humanitarian access.

Fu also addressed the obstruction of humanitarian supplies and the challenges faced by humanitarian workers, who encounter unreasonable difficulties and accusations.

He condemned the repeated attacks on facilities of humanitarian agencies and noted that over 200 humanitarian workers have died in the conflict, calling this "unprecedented in history and shocking."

Reiterating that "hunger cannot be weaponized, humanitarian issues cannot be politicized," Fu said the man-made exacerbation of the humanitarian disaster is "unacceptable."

Fu urged Israel to ensure the "rapid and safe entry of humanitarian supplies at scale into Gaza," and to cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations.

The council's adoption of resolution 2720 aimed to expand humanitarian access, but its implementation has fallen short.

Fu called for an examination of the reasons behind this and urged the concerned parties to work harder to remove obstacles to the large-scale entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Fu concluded by emphasizing that the fundamental way to alleviate the humanitarian disaster is through a lasting ceasefire and the early relaunch of the two-state solution.

He called on the international community to continue efforts toward this end and supported the council in taking further necessary action.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that his country is in "the final stage" of eliminating Hamas' armed force in the Gaza Strip.

"We are advancing towards the completion of the elimination" of Hamas, Netanyahu said during a meeting with cadets from Israel's National Security College, according to a statement released by his office.

Netanyahu's estimate came a day after he toured the Gaza Division and held a security assessment meeting, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the army's senior command, on Israel's nine-month-long offensive in Gaza, "with emphasis on the fighting in Rafah, as well as the continuation of military pressure on Hamas," according to Netanyahu's office.

Also on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered a mass evacuation of civilians from the eastern Khan Younis, signaling that ground forces might soon resume their offensives in the southern Gazan city, presumably to fight Hamas forces that have regrouped in the area.

Israel completed a large-scale attack in Khan Younis in early April and subsequently withdrew most of its forces.

RAMALLAH - The Palestinian presidency on Sunday rejected any foreign presence on Palestinian lands, in response to Israeli statements calling for the handover of the Gaza Strip to international forces.

In a declaration carried by the official news agency WAFA, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for the presidency, said that "there is no legitimacy for any foreign presence on Palestinian lands, and only the Palestinian people can decide who governs and manages their affairs."

He stressed that the Israeli government "is delusional if it thinks it can decide the fate of the Palestinian people and cement the occupation by bringing in foreign forces".

The spokesperson called the Palestine Liberation Organization the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which "has legal authority over all of Palestine's territory, including Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem".

He emphasized that "the Palestine issue is about land and statehood, not just humanitarian aid; it is a sacred issue and the central cause for Arabs."

On Friday, Israeli public radio Kan reported that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed the transitional phase plan for Gaza during his visit to the United States days ago.

The plan would be overseen by a steering committee led by the US and involving moderate Arab countries, according to the radio.

The international forces, possibly including soldiers from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco, would oversee security in Gaza while the American side would handle leadership and logistics from outside the strip, likely in Egypt, it reported.

The plan will be implemented in stages from north to south Gaza and aims for the gradual transfer of local security responsibilities to Palestinian forces, the report said.

It noted that the plan assumes that Hamas's military capabilities have been sufficiently reduced, rendering the group unable to conduct large-scale attacks.

Israel's National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi stated last Tuesday during a conference at the Reichman University in Herzliya that "the post-war plan for Hamas and Gaza has been prepared in recent weeks, and we will soon see practical steps towards this."

He added, "We do not have to wait for Hamas to disappear, as it is a long process," explaining, "We cannot eliminate Hamas as an idea; we need an alternative idea."

Hanegbi believes that establishing an alternative to replace Hamas is essential for achieving long-term victory, saying that the alternative should be a government supported by local residents who wish to live alongside Israel, with backing from moderate Arab countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had faced widespread criticism from within and outside Israel for not presenting a clear post-war plan for Gaza.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

GAZA/JERUSALEM — Airstrikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza over the weekend, where Israeli military operations have uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called "unbearable" living conditions in the territory.

Explosions were heard from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, and Israeli forces advanced further on Sunday.

The armed wings of both Hamas and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said they were engaged in fighting with Israeli forces there.

Israel's military on Saturday reported two soldiers killed and two severely wounded in combat in northern Gaza.

The Israeli forces also pushed deeper into western and central Rafah in the south.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a week ago the "intense phase" of the assault was winding down after almost nine months, but experts see a potentially prolonged next phase.

Mediators' efforts have failed to conclude a truce, with both sides blaming each other for the impasse.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Saturday there had been no progress in cease-fire talks with Israel over the conflict.

The Palestinian group is still ready to "deal positively" with any cease-fire proposal, Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.

Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday discussed with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel the course of the negotiations to achieve a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

The call came after Israel's Hebrew public radio Kan reported that the US administration presented a revised version of a prisoner exchange deal that includes a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli offensive has killed at least 37,877 Gazans, in response to Hamas' surprise attack in Israel on Oct 7, which killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.

At a Tel Aviv mass rally against Netanyahu's government on Saturday, a former hostage said "we must do everything to bring them back home", referring to the hostages in Gaza.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that "about 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced" from the area last week. Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for UNRWA, said: "It's really unbearable."

The conflict has also uprooted people on the Israel-Lebanon border, where the Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire.

Agencies - Xinhua

Israel kept up its bombardment of Gaza on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out ending its eight-month-long fighting in the enclave any time soon, as experts call for the implementation of the United Nations cease-fire resolution.

Netanyahu said late on Sunday that he would only accept a partial cease-fire deal that would not end the conflict in Gaza.

He said he was ready to make a partial deal to bring back some of the 120 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but "we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas".

Since the UN resolution's adoption on June 10, Hamas has notified mediating parties Qatar, Egypt and the United States that it welcomes the adoption and stated its readiness to implement the resolution.

Although the White House keeps talking of Israeli acceptance, Israel, however, has so far failed to officially announce it would carry out the resolution that requires an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, release of all hostages and no hindrance to the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Hamas noted Netanyahu's position is "a clear confirmation of his rejection of the recent Security Council resolution and the proposals of US President Joe Biden", according to The Palestinian Information Center.

The US has pressured Hamas to agree unconditionally to its proposals for the three-phase Gaza cease-fire. Biden announced the proposal in May.

The US proposal holds Hamas responsible for the delay, rather than making Israel accept the UNSC resolution.

Abdalfatah Asqool, an international law lecturer at the University of Palestine in Gaza, told China Daily that what the US is doing is to give Israel more time to continue the conflict.

Three phases for peace

The UNSC Resolution 2735 specifies three phases for peace, the first of which would include an immediate, full and complete cease-fire with the release of hostages and the return of the remains of some hostages who have been killed, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the populated areas in Gaza.

Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin, told China Daily there are questions regarding the US and Israel's differing views of the cease-fire proposal.

Yousef said the US has failed to differentiate between a temporary or permanent cease-fire, with the latter effectively meaning an end to the conflict.

This confusion has been passed to both Hamas and Israel, Yousef said, and Netanyahu is exploiting the gap between the different definitions of cease-fire.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed at least 24 Palestinians in three separate airstrikes early on Tuesday in Gaza City and the dead included a sister of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza health officials and medics said.

Israeli tanks also pressed deeper into the western areas of Rafah overnight, blowing up homes, residents said.

Two Israeli airstrikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 14 people, medics said. Another strike on a house in the Shati (Beach) camp, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 10 others.

The house in Shati belonged to the extended family of Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, killing one of his sisters along with other relatives too, family members and medics said.

Haniyeh, who leads Hamas' diplomacy and is the public face of the group that has been running Gaza, has lost many relatives in Israeli airstrikes since Oct 7, including three sons.

The health ministry in Hamasrun Gaza said Tuesday that at least 37,658 people have been killed during more than eight months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Agencies contributed to this story.

mikegu@chinadailyhk.com

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel is "committed" to the deal proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire in Gaza in return for the release of hostages.

"We are committed to the Israeli proposal that President Biden endorsed," Netanyahu said during a special plenum session of the Knesset (parliament) summoned by the opposition, noting "Our position has not changed."

Biden first presented the deal proposal to end the ongoing conflict in late May, referring to it as "the Israeli proposal". Netanyahu's remarks marked the first time the Israeli side has confirmed that Israel has approved and supports the proposal.

Netanyahu told the Knesset that Israel will not end the conflict "until we bring back all the hostages, all 120 of them -- both the living and the fallen" and until Hamas is "eliminated" and the residents in southern and northern can safely return to their homes.

Israel has been carrying out a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas rampage on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.

The Israeli assault caused a severe humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 37,600 people, according to the health authorities in Gaza.

UNITED NATIONS - UN Humanitarians said on Monday that access and security constraints hinder food aid delivery to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza and the medical evacuation of 10,000 patients.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the inability to transport aid commodities from the Kerem Shalom crossing safely and the continued closure of the Rafah crossing compounded the challenges facing aid operations.

OCHA said fewer than half of the 86 coordinated humanitarian missions to northern Gaza planned for this month were facilitated by Israeli authorities. More than a quarter were impeded, 12 percent were denied access and 12 percent were canceled due to logistical, operational or security reasons.

"A humanitarian mission returning to southern Gaza after delivering fuel and medical supplies to Gaza City in the north was delayed for more than 13 hours at an Israeli military checkpoint, putting the convoy in danger of being caught in crossfire," the office cited as just one example of the challenges in aid delivery. "Planned humanitarian missions requiring coordination to areas in southern Gaza also continue to face impediments and access denials."

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 10,000 people need medical evacuations to outside Gaza. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed for their sustained medical evacuation and timely passage using all possible routes.

"Pediatric patients are among those who need to leave Gaza for specialized care," OCHA said. "WHO and partners transferred five of these patients -- four with cancer and one with second-degree burns -- from Al-Ahli hospital to Nasser Medical Complex, where they will continue to receive care until they can depart Gaza."

The humanitarians said the WHO team also delivered medical supplies to cover the health needs of 20,000 patients at Al-Ahli and As-Sahaba hospitals and 19,000 liters of fuel.

In short supply in Gaza, fuel is necessary for electricity generators and to power smaller vehicles transporting aid and personnel.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that intense fighting against Hamas is "very close" to an end.

In an interview with Israeli Channel 14 TV news, Netanyahu said that "the intensive phase of the war in Rafah is about to end", and the Israeli forces were "very close" to concluding the "intensive phase" in the entire Gaza Strip.

However, he said, this does not mean an end to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, and operations will persist with the fighting against Hamas targets.

After the conclusion of the "intensive phase" in Gaza, "we will continue northward," Netanyahu said, referring to Israel's warnings of launching a full-fledged war against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

He said that any agreement to secure a ceasefire along the Israel-Lebanon border, where Israeli and Hezbollah forces have traded fire since Oct 7, 2023, "will have to meet our terms".

He stated he would only agree to a deal that would see Hamas removed from power in the Gaza Strip and the release of about 100 hostages who are still held in the Palestinian enclave.

GAZA/JERUSALEM — Dozens of people were killed in Israeli attacks on districts of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, as food continued to pile up at a Gaza crossing amid warnings from agencies that they are unable to deliver aid.

One Israeli strike on houses in Al-Shati, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 24 people, Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters. Another 18 Palestinians were killed in a strike on houses in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying: "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City."

Hamas said the attacks targeted the civilian population and that the perpetrators "will pay the price for their violations against our people".

"People were going about their business" when, suddenly, "the whole area was wiped out" in an airstrike, said Abu Mahmud al-Kariri, a witness in Al-Shati.

The European Union's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, on Saturday called for an "independent investigation" into the shelling that damaged the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross

Late on Friday, the committee said 22 dead and 45 wounded were taken to a Red Cross field hospital after shelling with "heavy caliber projectiles" near its southern Gaza office.

Gaza's health ministry blamed the shelling on Israel.

The Israel military said on Saturday that an initial inquiry found "there was no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility", but that the matter was being looked into.

The conflict has led to dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and repeated warnings by the United Nations of famine.

Desperation among Gaza's 2.4 million people has increased as fighting rages, bringing warnings from agencies that they are unable to deliver aid.

"The breakdown of public order and safety is increasingly endangering humanitarian workers and operations in Gaza," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday.

With civil order breaking down in Gaza, the UN says it has been unable to pick up any supplies from Kerem Shalom since Tuesday, leaving crucial aid in limbo.

A deputy UN spokesman said last week that the crossing "is operating with limited functionality, including because of fighting in the area".

Tel Aviv protests

On Saturday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced what organizers said was the biggest anti-government protest since the conflict began.

Tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv. One demonstrator's sign accused Netanyahu of being an "Enemy of Israel".

Supporters and families of the Gaza hostages also rallied, holding their pictures aloft.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that a dispute with the United States over weapons delays relating to the Gaza conflict would be resolved soon.

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant flew to Washington to discuss the next phase of the war and escalating hostilities on the border with Lebanon.

Exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border between Israel and Hezbollah have also escalated, raising fears of wider conflict.

On Saturday a security source said a leader of the Lebanese group Jamaa Islamiya was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in eastern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it had targeted a military position in northern Israel "with an attack drone" in response to the killing of a commander of the Jamaa Islamiya group.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said cross-border hostilities must not turn Lebanon into "another Gaza".

"One rash move — one miscalculation — could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination."

Violence has also soared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli troops tied a wounded Palestinian man to a military vehicle during a raid in the city of Jenin on Saturday, the army said on Sunday, acknowledging that soldiers had violated operational procedures.

Footage of the incident on the internet shows a Jenin resident strapped to the hood of a military jeep as it passes through a narrow alley.

"The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly," the military said, adding that the wounded man was transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent for treatment.

Agencies via Xinhua

GAZA/JERUSALEM — In tents in the stifling heat and in bombed-out mosques, Gazans marked the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved the six-member war cabinet.

Israeli media reported on Monday that Netanyahu told the security cabinet on Sunday night that the war cabinet, which was created on Oct 11, has been officially disbanded.

Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza conflict with a small group of ministers, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer who had been in the war cabinet, Reuters reported.

The prime minister had faced demands from partners in his coalition, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, to be included in the war cabinet, a move which would have intensified strains with international partners, including the United States.

Former general Benny Gantz left the government last week, over what they said was Netanyahu's failure to form a strategy for the Gaza operation.

After more than eight months of a devastating Israeli offensive that has flattened much of Gaza, displaced most of the besieged territory's 2.4 million people and sparked repeated warnings of famine, Eid this year is a day of misery for many.

"There is no joy. We have been robbed of it," said Malakiya Salman, who is now living in a tent in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

"I hope the world will put pressure to end the war on us, because we are truly dying, and our children are broken."

Palestinians used to celebrate the holiday by decorating streets and alleys, slaughtering sacrificial animals, exchanging visits to offer greetings, and children and young people by visiting parks and playgrounds in the Strip with their families to have fun.

Holiday rituals absent

All the holiday rituals, however, were absent from the family of Ahmed Mansour, who was displaced from his home in Gaza City after October. "I was not able to buy new clothes for my children and we could not prepare the cakes. In short, this holiday came without joy," the 35-year-old father of three told Xinhua News Agency.

The Israeli military announced on Sunday morning a "tactical pause of military activity" around a Rafah-area route to facilitate the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gazans.

The pause "for humanitarian purposes will take place from 8:00 am until 7:00 pm every day until further notice along the road that leads from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din road and then northward", a military statement said.

The United Nations welcomed the Israeli move, although "this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people in need", said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

But Netanyahu criticized the plans announced by the military.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

More than 37,347 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been pushing for a new Gaza truce, so far without success.

The only previous truce lasted one week in November and saw many hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, while increased aid flowed into Gaza.

Hamas has insisted on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent cease-fire — demands Israel has repeatedly rejected.

Agencies - Xinhua

The Group of Seven nations is being urged to do more to end Israeli atrocities in Gaza as Tel Aviv has yet to publicly accept a US-backed United Nations Security Council resolution despite the bloc's claim that it welcomes Israel's acceptance of the proposal.

The Islamic Relief group urged the G7 countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to end arms sales to states in which there "are serious risks of international law being violated, such as Israel's actions in Gaza".

Military spending was at "record levels" while humanitarian aid to help people affected by wars and disasters had been cut, even as more than 1 million Palestinians are starving, it said.

Israel's continued offensives are reported to have killed at least 37,337 Gazans, in response to Hamas' attack on Israel in October, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Gaza on Saturday, the military said.

In Rafah, witnesses reported clashes between militants and Israeli troops in the city's west and artillery fire toward a refugee camp in the city center.

Abdalfatah Asqool, an international law lecturer at the University of Palestine, told China Daily: "They announce a deal, which is originally an Israeli deal, and they ask Hamas only to say yes to the deal without any comments. This proves that the US is acting as a representative of Israel. They announced that Israel accepted the deal, but we did not hear it from the Israelis themselves.

"So it is better for the US to stop playing the two faces role, because this will make them keep losing on both the local and international level."

Abdul Wahed Jalal Nori, an analyst and lecturer in the Department of Fundamental and Inter-Disciplinary Studies at the International Islamic University Malaysia, told China Daily that what the G7 said at its summit was "insufficient and overly cautious". G7's reliance on US President Joe Biden's proposed deal "places too much responsibility on Hamas to accept terms without significant leverage or guarantees", he said.

"This is seen as somewhat one-sided, failing to adequately pressure Israel to make concessions necessary for peace, such as easing the blockade on Gaza or addressing settlement activities in the West Bank."

At the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy, from Thursday to Saturday, the bloc called on Hamas to accept and implement UN Security Council Resolution 2735 while reaffirming support to Israel and its "right to defend itself", according to a G7 communique published on Friday.

Though demanding an increase in humanitarian aid flow, the G7 said it wanted "Israel's security interests and safety for Palestinian civilians in Gaza assured".

However, the government of Israel has yet to publicly acknowledge or accept the proposals even though the US has given assurances that Tel Aviv has accepted the conditions.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "faces significant pressure from various domestic political factions", Abdul Wahed said, and acknowledging international calls for a cease-fire or concessions to Hamas "might be seen as a sign of weakness or a betrayal of national security interests".

"This could erode political support within right-wing and conservative segments of the Israeli electorate, who favor a hard-line stance against Hamas and other Palestinian factions."

Though G7 leaders in their communique reiterated a commitment to a two-state solution, the outcomes "expressly show the double standards of the international community in dealing with the issues", said Asqool of the University of Palestine.

The G7 agreed on the right of Ukraine to resist but ignored the Palestinian right to defense against occupying forces and did little for the thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians killed after the Hamas attack in October, Asqool said.

Agencies contributed to this story.

jan@chinadailyapac.com

GAZA -- At least nine Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on the first day of Eid al-Adha, Palestinian medical sources said on Sunday.

The airstrike targeted two residential houses, killing nine people, including six children, and injuring several others who were then taken to the hospital, said medical sources who require anonymity.

As of Sunday, the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 37,337, with 85,299 injuries, the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza said.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on Sunday that fighting continued in the southern Gaza Strip, including in the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah.

He also confirmed that the road through which goods pass will be open during daylight hours for the passage of humanitarian aid only.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.

Gaza -- About 625,000 children have been denied an education in the Gaza Strip as schools have been forced to remain closed due to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a UN body said on Saturday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a statement on social media platform X that its crews continue to support Palestinian children through activities that help them return to learning, but this is not enough, stressing the necessity of a ceasefire now.

The war robbed the children in Gaza of their childhood, and the survivors are suffering from deep trauma, as their schools were destroyed and they lost an entire academic year without education or play, it added.

Children are the first to suffer the most in conflicts and wars, pointing out that a very large number of them have been killed and others injured, and many of them will have scars for life, the statement said.

As of Friday, the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing conflict has risen to 37,296, with 85,197 others wounded, Hamas-run health authorities said in a press statement.

Also on Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement that eight Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a separate statement, Adraee said the IDF forces are moving forward with defeating the military wing of Hamas and stripping its Rafah Brigade of its capabilities.

"The forces in the field daily kill many terrorists and destroy weapons, platforms, and rockets, thus preventing Hamas from returning to action against Israel as it was on Oct. 7," Adraee added.

Since last Oct. 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has led to massive casualties and destruction of homes and infrastructure after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which claimed the lives of about 1,200 Israelis.

JERUSALEM -- The Israel Defense Forces announced on Saturday evening that its eight soldiers were killed in a blast in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah in the morning.

Urgent actions are imperative to achieve an immediate, permanent cease-fire and to accelerate humanitarian aid delivery to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to a leaders' statement on Tuesday, as the conflict is triggering wider spillover effects in the region.

The "Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza" conference in Sweimeh, Jordan, was co-organized by Jordan, Egypt and the United Nations on Tuesday to address the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where about 1 million civilians are in hunger and forcibly displaced.

The statement called for establishing an immediate, permanent cease-fire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and civilians who are being illegally held captive, demanding their safety, well-being and humane treatment in compliance with international law.

"We cannot abandon Gaza," King Abdullah II of Jordan said at the conference.

The leaders expressed grave concerns at the enormous loss of life, the unprecedented civilian casualties and the unfolding man-made humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, caused by the continuing lack of humanitarian access to civilians in need, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"Humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza is imperative", said Haoliang Xu, under-secretary-general and UNDP associate administrator, on behalf of UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, as stated on the United Nations Development Programme website.

In his remarks at the conference, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi welcomed the entry of sufficient and sustainable humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as Resolution 2735 adopted on Monday by the UN Security Council.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Qatar for talks after Hamas submitted a response to a US-led proposal for a cease-fire.

Blinken, on a four-country tour around the Middle East to push Hamas to accept the truce proposal, will meet the top leadership of Qatar, which has been in communication with the Palestinian militant group.

Amendments proposed

Hamas, responding to the plan laid out late last month by the United States, proposed amendments late on Tuesday, including a ceasefire timeline and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, according to a source close to the talks.

Egypt and Qatar said they had received Hamas' response, but did not disclose the content.

Hamas' response to a proposed Gaza cease-fire deal "opens up a wide pathway" to reach an agreement, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, said on Wednesday.

The movement's response is "responsible, serious and positive", al-Rishq added.

The US said Israel accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this. As Israel continues its assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest in the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel would not commit to an end of its assault in Gaza before Hamas is eliminated.

As the fate of a cease-fire hangs in the balance, Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions.

Hezbollah said it fired missiles and rockets at two military bases in retaliation for the killing of Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55. Known within Hezbollah as Hajj Abu Taleb, he is the most senior commander killed since the fighting began eight months ago.

Hezbollah has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the Israel-Hamas conflict began and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza.

As air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, the military said about 160 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon, making it one of the largest attacks since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.

With the United Nations Security Council adopting a resolution on Monday for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, the international community is calling on Israel to urgently implement the consensus and halt the military campaign that is causing untold suffering to millions of besieged Palestinians.

According to a statement published by WAFA news agency, the Palestinian presidency welcomed the adoption of Resolution 2735 by the UN Security Council, calling for an immediate and complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as "a step in the right direction to stop the ongoing war of genocide against the Palestinian people".

It also reiterated its call for the implementation of the two-state solution. Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, who spoke to the media after the vote in New York, said Palestine is "determined with our friends to make a long-lasting, permanent cease-fire".

On Tuesday, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said it accepted the cease-fire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the details.

It is up to Washington to ensure that Israel abides by it, he added. He said Hamas accepted the formula stipulating the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.

Belal Alakhras, a political analyst and Palestinian researcher at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, told China Daily that the resolution endorsing a cease-fire in Gaza reflects the international consensus that "continuing the genocidal war is illegitimate and that restoring stability in the region is urgently needed".

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the fighting could "stop today if Hamas agrees to the deal now endorsed by the Security Council".

But Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, political coordinator of the Israeli mission to the UN, said her country's goals have been "very clear "since Oct 7, namely to bring all Israeli hostages home and dismantle Hamas and its capabilities, ensuring that Gaza "does not pose a threat to Israel in the future".

She also said Israel "will not engage in meaningless and endless negotiations which can be exploited by Hamas as a means to stall for time".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday following the rescue of four Israeli hostages that Israel would not relent "until we complete the mission and return all our hostages home, both the living and the deceased".

Last week, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued calls to "expand the war in Gaza" and to invade southern Lebanon.

Turkiye welcomed the UNSC resolution as "an important step toward putting an end to the massacre", and lauded Hamas' "constructive and positive approach" to the cease-fire plan. "It is imperative that Israel announces its commitment to the implementation of a permanent cease-fire and fully implements all elements of the resolution," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Alakhras noted that the US vetoed three cease-fire proposals while enabling Israel's conflict in Gaza for more than eight months, leading to unprecedented killing and destruction that impacted the entire region and swayed the US' and international public opinion.

Dire need

"This inconsistency highlights the world's dire need for a system not confined to one major power that can rapidly reverse course on matters of self-inflicted consequence. The priority now is implementing this resolution, though Palestinians seek guarantees that the war will truly end, while Israeli leaders publicly want to achieve all objectives of their total war," he said.

Further, he said emerging powers on the Security Council "should take the initiative to promote stability proactively, not just react after massive lives and interests are impacted".

In a social media post, Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza, welcomed the cease-fire resolution, but shared what she called "some critical observations".

She said the UNSC "cannot infringe people's right to self-determination" as it lacked the authority to determine who will or should rule over Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and underscored that only Palestinians will have to choose via "free and democratic elections".

Agencies contributed to this story.

DOHA/CAIRO - Qatar and Egypt have received a response from Hamas regarding the proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement by the Qatari Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions responded Tuesday to "the most recent proposal for a ceasefire deal and the exchange of prisoners and detainees", it said.

The two countries confirmed that they are mediating alongside the United States until an agreement is reached, but did not disclose details, according to the statement.

The mediators "will examine the response and coordinate with the parties concerned regarding the next steps", it added.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also announced on Tuesday that it had received a response of Hamas and the Palestinian factions to the latest ceasefire proposal and prisoners-detainees swap deal.

In a joint statement sent to Xinhua, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad said that a delegation from the two movements delivered the Palestinian factions' response on Tuesday to Qatar during a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and the response was also delivered to the Egyptian side.

The statement added that the response prioritizes the interests of the Palestinian people and emphasizes the necessity of completely stopping the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

It noted that the delegation expressed its readiness to engage positively to reach an agreement that would end this war against the Palestinian people.

The submission of the response follows the adoption by the UN Security Council on Monday of an American draft resolution aiming to reach a comprehensive agreement for a three-phase ceasefire to end the war in Gaza.

The resolution was adopted with 14 votes in favor and Russia abstaining. According to the resolution, the first phase includes an "immediate and complete ceasefire with the release of hostages and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners".

The second phase will see a permanent cessation of hostilities "in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza".

In the third phase, a "major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza" will begin, and the remains of any hostages who were killed and are still in Gaza will be returned to Israel.

The resolution stated that Israel has "accepted" the agreement and "calls on" Hamas to do the same.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage.