Israeli attacks have killed at least 138 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours, local health officials said.
Health officials at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said the Israeli military had carried out an air strike on a tent encampment west of the city around 2am, killing 15 Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war.
The Israeli military said troops operating in the Khan Younis area had eliminated fighters, confiscated weapons and dismantled Hamas outposts in the previous 24 hours while striking 100 targets across Gaza, including military structures, weapons storage facilities and launchers.
Later, Palestinians gathered to perform funeral prayers before burying those killed overnight.
“There should have been a ceasefire long ago before I lost my brother,” said 13-year-old Mayar Al Farr as she wept. Her brother, Mahmoud, was shot dead in another incident, she said.
“He went to get aid, so he can get a bag of flour for us to eat. He got a bullet in his neck,” she said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that two American aid workers had suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a grenade attack at a food distribution site in Gaza.
The US- and Israeli-backed GHF said in a statement that the injured Americans were receiving medical treatment and were in a stable condition.
“The attack – which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans – occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,” the GHF said.
GHF, which began distributing aid in Gaza in May, employs private US military contractors tasked with providing security at their sites.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
Hamas said it had responded on Friday in ‘a positive spirit’ to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal and was prepared to enter into talks on implementing the deal, which envisages a release of hostages and negotiations on ending the conflict.
US President Donald Trump had announced a ‘final proposal’ for a 60-day ceasefire in the nearly 21-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, saying he anticipated a reply from the parties in coming hours.
Hamas wrote on its official website: “The Hamas movement has completed its internal consultations as well as discussions with Palestinian factions and forces regarding the latest proposal by the mediators to halt the aggression against our people in Gaza.
“The movement has delivered its response to the brotherly mediators, which was characterised by a positive spirit. Hamas is fully prepared, with all seriousness, to immediately enter a new round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing this framework,” the statement said.
In a sign of potential challenges still facing the sides, an official of a group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing to Egypt and clarity over a timetable of Israeli troop withdrawals.
Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed ‘to the necessary conditions to finalise’ a 60-day ceasefire, during which efforts would be made to end the US ally’s war in the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington today, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements the two sides remain far apart. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the fighter group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media cited an Israeli official as saying that Israel had received and was looking into Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
Trump expressed optimism late on Friday to reporters aboard Air Force One, who asked about Hamas’ response.
“They said they gave me a positive response? Well, that’s good,” Trump said, adding that he had not yet been briefed. “There could be a Gaza deal next week.”
An Egyptian security official told Reuters that Egypt, which along with Qatar is mediating ceasefire efforts, had seen Hamas’ response and said: “It includes positive signs that an agreement is near, but there are some demands from Hamas that need to be worked on.”
Trump has said he would be ‘very firm’ with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy ceasefire.
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