Gaza City:
On Friday, Israel said that Hamas should accept a hostage agreement in Gaza or “be destroyed” because US President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire agreement was “very close”.
He came in the midst of disastrous conditions on the ground, the United Nations warning that the whole population of Gaza was at risk of famine.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hamas should accept a cease-fire proposal presented by American envoy Steve Witkoff or be destroyed, after the Palestinian group said the agreement had not satisfied its requests.
“The murderers of Hamas will now be forced to choose: Accept the terms” the Witkoff agreement “for the release of the hostages – or be annihilated.”
Israel has repeatedly said that the destruction of the militant group was a key goal of war.
Negotiations to put an end to almost 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to make a breakthrough, Israel incorporating operations in March following a short -term truce. In the United States, Trump told journalists “they are very close to an agreement on Gaza”, adding: “We will inform you during the day or maybe tomorrow.”
During all this time, the food shortages in Gaza persisted, with a help which flows after the partial lifting by Israel of a blockage of more than two months.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian agency, called Gaza on Friday “the most confronted place on the earth”.
“This is the only defined area – a country or a territory defined in a country – where you have the whole population at risk of famine,” he said.
Later, the UN condemned the “looting of large quantities of medical equipment” and other supplies “intended for children suffering from malnutrition” of one of its Gaza warehouses by armed individuals. Help groups previously warned that despair of food and medicine in the Gazans caused a deterioration in security.
Israel has doubled on its expansion of settlement in occupied West Bank, while defying the calls of French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders for a solution to two states. This week, he announced the creation of 22 new colonies in the West Bank.
London described The Move as a “deliberate obstacle” to the Palestinian state, and the spokesman for the UN chief Antonio Guterres said that he had pushed the efforts to a solution to two states “in the wrong direction”.
Friday, the Minister of Defense Israel Katz promised to build a “Jewish Israeli State” in the Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967.
The Israeli colonies in the West Bank – considered illegal under international law – are considered a major obstacle to lasting peace in the Israeli -Palestinian conflict.
Katz considered the move as a direct reprimand to Macron and others pushing the recognition of a Palestinian state.
On Friday, Macron said that the recognition of a Palestinian state, with certain conditions, was “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity”.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the French president of having undertaken a “crusade against the Jewish state”.
In addition, a diplomatic source told AFP that the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal Bin Farhan, would take the first visit of this kind in the West Bank on Sunday.
The White House announced Thursday that Israel had “signed” a new cease-fire proposal submitted to Hamas.
The Palestinian militant group said that the agreement had not satisfied its requests, but stopped rejecting it squarely.
On Friday, in a statement, he said that he “held consultations” on the proposal.
The Gaza Civil Defense Agency told AFP that at least 45 people were killed on Friday in Israeli attacks, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the North.
The Palestinians sobbed the bodies of their loved ones from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after the strike showed images from AFPTV.
“They were civilians and slept at home,” said neighbor Mahmud al-Ghaf, describing “children in pieces”.
“Stop the war!” said Mahmud Nasr, who has lost parents. “We don’t want anything of you, just stop war.” The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Jabalia’s strike, but said separately that the Air Force had struck “dozens of targets” in Gaza during the last day.
