The United States confirms that Israel has essentially agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release agreement, according to the AP. Now it is Hamas' turn to accept.
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The Israelis accepted a sixweek ceasefire agreement to release Hamas hostages, including the sick, wounded, elderly and women.
“The ball is in Hamas's court and we will continue to try to enforce it as much as possible,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to share the information, according to the Associated Press (AP).
This first step would be followed by a “second phase” to “build something more lasting together.”
Many deaths in the field of humanitarian aid
Many of the Palestinians killed or injured in the chaos as they tried to collect bags of flour from an aid convoy were hit by Israeli fire, the European Union's diplomatic service said on Saturday, calling for an international investigation.
Outrage is growing as thousands of people struggle to survive in Gaza after nearly five months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
U.S. military planes began the first airdrops of food into Gaza on Saturday, and the Egyptian army said it also carried out airdrops.
“Responsibility for this incident lies with the restrictions imposed by the Israeli army and the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian assistance by violent extremists,” the European External Action Service said.
The Palestinian people are starving
Residents of the northern Gaza Strip say they have begun searching for food in the rubble of buildings and garbage to feed their children, who barely eat once a day. Many families began mixing animal and poultry feed with grains to make bread. International aid organizations report a catastrophic famine.
“We are starving,” said Soad Abu Hussein, a widow and mother of five who lives in a school in Jabaliya refugee camp. According to the World Health Organization, at least 10 children died of starvation, according to Gaza hospital records.
The north of the Gaza Strip has been hardest hit by the conflict, which began when the armed group Hamas launched an attack against southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages.
The Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 30,320 people and injured at least 71,000, according to Palestinian sources, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in the number but say women and children make up about twothirds of those killed.
In the city of Rafah in Gaza's far south, where more than half of the besieged area's population is currently seeking refuge, an Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit tents outside the Emir Hospital, killing at least 11 people and wounding about 50.
About one in six children under the age of two in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting, “the worst levels of child malnutrition in the world,” Carl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), said this week. . “If nothing changes, there is a risk of famine in the north of the Gaza Strip.”
The desperation for food was so great that people were attacking trucks delivering food aid and taking what they could, Skau said.
“The collapse of civil order driven by sheer desperation is preventing the safe distribution of relief supplies, and we have a duty to protect our people,” he said.
Shots into the crowd
During Thursday's violence, hundreds of people rushed to reach around 30 trucks carrying relief supplies to the north. Palestinians said Israeli soldiers fired into the crowd. Israel said it fired warning shots into the crowd and stressed that many of those killed had been crushed by the avalanche of people.
Abu Hussein, a widow, said more than 5,000 people, mostly women and children, who live with her at the Jabaliya school had not received assistance for more than four weeks. Adults eat one meal or less to save for children, he added.
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A group of people went to the shore to fish, but three died and two were injured by gunfire from Israeli ships, he said. “They just wanted to get something for their children.”
The Israeli army has not yet responded to an AP request for comment on the events.