Hamas Rejects New US-Israel Ceasefire Deal for Gaza

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A senior Hamas official said the group will turn down an offer for a new ceasefire and hostage deal made by the United States and endorsed by Israel. The official also told the BBC that the proposal does not meet the key demand of Hamas, specifically a complete halt to the war and a lasting peace in Gaza.

The White House said that Israel had approved the plan prepared by US envoy Steve Witkoff. According to Israeli media reports, the offer included a 60-day cease-fire, the release of 10 living captives and the remains of 18 dead ones, and a prisoners-of-war swap of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Hamas Resists Despite Dialogue_continues.
The current proposal, the Hamas official said, would not ensure that a temporary cease-fire leads to a halt to hostilities or that previous humanitarian arrangements -- including the daily delivery of hundreds of aid trucks -- would be restored. Still, Hamas is in touch with intermediaries and indicated that it would present a formal response soon.

The plan was handed to Hamas after it was approved by Israel, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in Washington. "We hope there will be a ceasefire in Gaza so we can bring all of the hostages to their home," she said.

Tensions Continue to Aboil with Military Campaigns Slumping along
Meanwhile in Gaza: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was said to have informed families of hostages that Israel accepted the U.S. proposal that Hamas had endorsed. The Israeli military began an expanded offensive to establish control over all of Gaza on 19 May. The next day,Netanyahu said that he would only loosen, slightly, the blockade, to allow Mediterranean produce into the Gazan region.

Hamas, though, says the release of the remaining hostages will only come with a clear end to the war on top of a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The most recent hostilities began after Hamas launched a cross-border raid on 7 October 2023, when more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken captive. Since then, Israel has exchanged 197 other hostages, 148 of them alive, mainly in past truce agreements.

Humanitarian Cost Keeps Climbing
More than 54,000 people have been killed during the conflict, including nearly 4,000 since Israel re-started its offensive in March, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Just on Thursday, 54 people were said to have died in Israeli strikes, among them 23 in a single home in the central Bureij area.

The United Nations says renewed Israeli military activity has displaced 600,000 people, and warns that some 500,000 in Gaza may suffer from catastrophic hunger in the coming months.