Hamas says it has given a ‘positive’ response to the latest ceasefire proposal in Gaza

DEIR al-BALAH Gaza Strip AP Hamas explained Friday it has given a positive response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but mentioned further talks were needed on implementation It was not clear if Hamas announcement meant it had accepted the proposal from U S President Donald Trump for a -day ceasefire Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war now nearly months old Trump has been pushing hard for a deal to be reached and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal The Hamas report came as Israeli airstrikes killed Palestinians in Gaza early Friday while a hospital commented another people died in shootings while seeking aid The U N human rights office noted it has recorded Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid The bulk were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations it stated Efforts ongoing to halt the war Trump declared Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a -day ceasefire in Gaza during which the U S would work with all parties to end the war He urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen In its report late Friday Hamas revealed it has submitted its positive response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators It mentioned it is fully prepared to instantly enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation A Hamas official stated the ceasefire could start as early as next week but he reported talks were needed first to work out how several Palestinian prisoners would be disclosed in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce Hamas has disclosed it wants aid to flow in greater quantities through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn t authorized to discuss the response with the press The official also revealed that negotiations would start from the first day of the truce on a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in return for the release of remaining hostages He announced that Trump has guaranteed that the truce will be extended beyond days if needed for those negotiations to reach a deal There has been no confirmation from the United States of such a guarantee Previous rounds of negotiations have run aground over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war s end while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the destruction of the militant group We ll see what happens We re going to know over the next hours Trump narrated reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when required if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire killed Friday while seeking aid Functionaries at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis stated at least three Palestinians were killed Friday while on the roads heading to food distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza Since GHF began distributions in late May spectators have declared almost daily that Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading to the food centers To reach the sites people must walk several kilometers miles through an Israeli military zone where troops control the road The Israeli military has revealed previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel s military On Friday in reaction to the U N rights agency s record it explained in a message that it was studying reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid It revealed it was working at minimizing accomplishable friction between the population and Israeli forces including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes Separately spectators have noted Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the U N or other aid organizations not associated with GHF On Friday people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area authorities at Nasser Hospital reported Three survivors communicated the AP they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military red zone in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones It was a crowd of people may God help them who want to eat and live stated Seddiq Abu Farhana who was shot in the leg forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed There was direct firing Airstrikes also hit the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza s Mediterranean coast where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes are sheltering in tent camps Of the people killed in the strikes eight were women and one was a child according to the hospital Israel s military stated it was looking into Friday s revealed airstrikes It had no immediate comment on the published shootings surrounding the aid trucks U N investigates shootings near aid sites The spokeswoman for the U N human rights office Ravina Shamdasani commented the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings But she declared it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points operated by GHF In a message to The Associated Press Shamdasani stated that of the total tallied killings were GHF-related meaning at or near its distribution sites In a report Friday GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures accusing the U N of taking its casualty figures directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strength Ministry and of trying to falsely smear our effort Shamdasani the U N rights office spokesperson reported the AP that the figures is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources including health human rights and humanitarian organizations Rik Peeperkorn representative of the World Robustness Organization declared Nasser Hospital the biggest hospital operating in the south receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day largest part coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites The International Committee of the Red Cross also commented in late June that its field hospital near one of the GHF sites has been overwhelmed more than times in the previous months by mass casualties the greater part suffering gunshot injuries while on their way to the food distribution sites Also on Friday Israel s military announced two soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza one in the north and one in the south Over Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began including more than during the fighting in Gaza The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders Friday in northeast Khan Younis in southern Gaza and urged Palestinians to move west ahead of planned military operations against Hamas in the area The new evacuation zones pushed Palestinians into increasingly smaller spaces by the coast The Fitness Ministry in Gaza reported the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than half of the dead are women and children The ministry is run by therapeutic professionals employed by the Hamas cabinet and its numbers are widely cited by the U N and international organizations The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel killing people and taking roughly hostages Kullab disclosed from Jerusalem and Mroue from Beirut Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed