President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff Gaza ceasefire talks And bringing his negotiation team to the house of Qatar for consultations, after having declared that Hamas had published an answer which “shows a lack of desire to reach a cease-fire”.
The talks were bogged down on contradictory requests in terms to end the 21 month war. Hamas says that it will only publish all the hostages always held in Gaza in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal and the end of the war.
Israel says that he will not agree to end the war until Hamas releases hostages, abandons power and disarmaments – a condition that the terrorist group designated in the United States and Israeli rejects.
Trump’s envoy blames Hamas for the breakdown of ceasefire talks
“While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not seem to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” said Witkoff in a statement. “We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the inhabitants of Gaza.”
It was not clear what “alternative options” the United States was considering. The White House had no immediate comments and the State Department did not immediately respond to messages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled the Israeli negotiation team in Israel in the light of Hamas’ response on Thursday morning. In a brief statement, the Prime Minister’s office expressed his appreciation for the efforts of Witkoff and the mediators of Qatar and Egypt, but has given no other details.
In a statement sent to CBS News on Thursday evening, a Hamas official said that the group had “always behaved with a great responsibility to conclude a complete, viable and practical case which can grant a permanent cease-fire and put an end to the suffering of our people, and I wonder how someone can consider it selfish.”
The manager said he was “really surprised” by the “Declaration outside the tale
The official stressed that Hamas was “still involved in the cease-fire talks” and expected the mediators and the international community “to bear their responsibility” to mitigate the disastrous circumstances of Gaza.
Earlier Thursday, an Israeli official told the Associated Press that Hamas’ last response was “achievable”.
Another civil servant who is aware of the cease-fire talks said that AP Hamas had submitted a “positive response” through Qatari mediators.
Israel launched his war in Gaza in response to the terrorist attack on October 7 of Hamas, which killed some 1,200 Israeli and saw 251 others hostage. Most of the captives have been released or rescued, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that 50 remain in Gaza, 20 of which are still alive.
The war killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Hamas in Gaza, which does not distinguish between activists and civilians, but says that more than half of the dead are women and children.
“Children of the Gaza Strip will die from hunger to death”
While the blockade of Israel and the military offensive in Gaza are set up, four major press organizations said Thursday that their journalists from the Palestinian enclave faced the threat of famine. The joint declaration of the Associated Press, the Agency France-Press, Reuters and the BBC called Israel to allow journalists to enter and leave Gaza and allow adequate food supplies on the territory.
The United Nations supported the call for media organizations for Israel to leave the right food supplies in Gaza and allow journalists to enter and go out freely. UN staff in Gaza are also hungry, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday.
Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim al-Arinini / Anadolu / Getty
People will die of hunger “because we simply do not return,” he said, reiterating that the obstacles imposed by Israel inhibit the delivery of the UN aid.
“If that does not improve soon and more help goes through all the different control points, people will die,” said Haq. “We have been saying this for months, and now we are to the point where, in fact, people die.”
Unicef, the The UN children’s fund, said in a declaration Thursday, 798 Palestinian civilians, including children, were killed near the Gaza aid distribution sites between May 27 and July 7 when they were looking for food.
More than 100 people have died in Gaza in malnutrition since the start of the war, UNICEF said, and 80% were children. The charitable organization said that screening in the Palestinian enclave had found 6,000 children in an acute malnutrition in June only, marking an increase of 180% since February.
“Children of the Gaza Strip are hungry. Severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than helping them cannot reach them, and the world is looking at this,” said UNICEF regional director for the Middle East Edouard Beigbeder in the group’s declaration.
Israel says that this allows sufficient help in Gaza and that it criticizes the UN agencies for not distributing it. But these agencies say that it is almost impossible to provide safe help due to Israeli restrictions and the rupture of law and order in Gaza, with crowds of thousands of tickets around food trucks as soon as they move to the territory.
UNICEF said that from May 19 to July 2, an average of 30 United Nations aid trucks entered Gaza per day, against 500 trucks on average per day which entered before the suspicion. The charitable organization said that current food supplies in Gaza represent approximately 6% of the normal pre-war levels.
Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim al-Arinini / Anadolu / Getty
In greater numbers than ever, children dug by hunger are overwhelming from the Patient Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnutrition children in northern Gaza.
The staff of the establishment said that five young children who died last weekend of malnutrition marked a change: they were the first deaths in the center in children who had no pre-existing conditions. Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move, said Dr. Rana Soboh, nutritionist. In recent months, most of the children caused by malnutricity have improved with treatment, despite supply shortages, but now patients stay longer and do not improve, she said.
The lack of basic health and sanitation care also allows fatal diseases to spread to Gaza, the charity Oxfam warned Friday.
“Water origin diseases that are both avoidable and easily treatable have increased almost 150% within Gaza in the past three months while Israel continues to deliberately block the aid,” said the group. “The available multi-agencies health data show that the number of Palestinians presenting themselves in healthy diarrhea health establishments increased by 150%, bloody diarrhea by 302%and acute jurisdiction of 101%.”
Oxfam said that the figures were probably “largely underdeveloped because most of the two million people trapped by the continuous headquarters of Israel have little access to the few health establishments that have managed to continue to work”.