Gaza | Pakistan

US President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner will visit Israel next week in hopes of bridging gaps on a Gaza plan rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, officials said Friday. Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza of Trump’s so-called Board of Peace implementing the deal, will visit both Israel and key mediator Egypt. The trip comes after Netanyahu publicly rejected a 15-point plan announced by Mladenov in which Hamas agreed to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing committee in Gaza. A Board of Peace official said Kushner and Mladenov hoped for “constructive conversations” on advancing Trump’s overall peace plan that began with the October 2025 declaration of a ceasefire, which has reduced but not ended Israeli strikes in Gaza. “The United States and Israel agree on the end state, which is a demilitarised Hamas,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “We will hear the concerns that have been raised and talk about next steps. “What is cr...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a Gaza plan hailed by US President Donald Trump, vowing no military pullout until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed. After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it as he faced pushback from his right-wing base ahead of elections. “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said, referring to a plan endorsed in late July by Hamas. The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens”, Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting. The document, the latest stage in a US-led ceasefire announced in October that has reduced but not ended Israeli operations in Gaza, said Hamas would surrender weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing body. The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, an idea adamantly rejected by Israel, which also wants Hamas to destroy its weap...

Hamas said on Saturday it remained ready to proceed with a US-backed Gaza peace plan and urged pressure on Israel, which insists it did not agree to the latest part of the deal. Hamas informed US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace that it stood by the latest stage of the plan, under which the group would hand over weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee in the war-battered territory. “Hamas and other factions have confirmed to mediators their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and move to the second phase, provided it receives Israeli approval and that Israel begins implementing the agreement,” a Hamas official told AFP. “Hamas is urging the US administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a tough reelection fight in October and wide opposition from his right-wing base to the Gaza deal, said on Tuesday that Israel had ...

Palestinians in Gaza held funeral prayers on Tuesday for 112 people recovered from under the rubble of homes destroyed during Israel’s war on the enclave. The funeral is considered one of the largest in Palestinian history due to the high number of victims. Thousands of Palestinians took part in the funeral in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, where the bodies were draped in Palestinian flags and placed near the ruins of the destroyed homes, according to an Anadolu reporter. The victims were members of the Al-Hasayneh and Abu Sharia families, who were killed when the Israeli army bombed their homes while they were inside on November 23, 2023. They are set to be buried at the Baptist Cemetery in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, south of Gaza City, after the funeral procession. The bodies were retrieved from the rubble by civil defence teams on Saturday. “The victims included 40 children, 38 women and seven people with disabilities,” it said in a statement. “The teams were unable to find 157 bodies still missing under...

US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on Monday assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza would only begin after Hamas’s complete disarmament, following his objections. Two members of Netanyahu’s security cabinet had urged a vote to tear up the deal championed by Trump after the board released a text that called for Israel to begin a phased withdrawal. Netanyahu’s office said it had raised concerns to the United States, after Trump on Friday hailed as a “major milestone” an agreement by Hamas to hand over weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee. Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the Board of Peace, met with Netanyahu on Monday for what he acknowledged was difficult work. But the board said it had reached a “common understanding of the shared objectives” with Israel. Israel’s withdrawal beyond the Yellow Line, which demarcates the area in which Hamas still has control, “will take place only once decommissioning [of weapons] is...

PA says agreement on phase 2 of Gaza ceasefire plan ‘remains on paper’ as killings continue

Israel has conveyed concerns to the United States on a Gaza plan hailed by President Donald Trump after Hamas said it had agreed on disarmament, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday. “Israel has conveyed its comments and concerns on the proposed framework to our American counterparts. The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel’s positions,” Doron Spielman, spokesman for the prime minister’s office, told AFP. He alleged that Israeli intelligence had found that Hamas had been rearming and recruiting forces since a ceasefire announced by Trump in October, which has reduced the level of violence although Israel has kept up strikes. Hamas announced on Friday that it had agreed to the next stage of a deal that includes handing over weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee. Trump called the move a “major milestone” in efforts to end the devastating war and told reporters that Israel was “very happy” about the developments. But Netanyahu’s spokesman said that Hamas’...

Hamas has agreed to a deal to end its conflict with Israel, under which it will give up its weapons in exchange for a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated Gaza Strip. Below are the reactions of several Gazans, who have endured more than two years of strikes, hunger and mass displacement since the conflict began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. While Hamas has agreed to the plan announced by US President Donald Trump, Israel has yet to comment. ‘Afraid to dream’ For displaced teacher Mohammed Hamdouna, the conflict ushered in an era of horror that he hopes can finally draw to a close. “Finally, the world’s longest nightmare will end,” the 35-year-old told AFP. “I’m afraid to dream or believe it until the crossings are opened and aid and temporary shelters begin to enter Gaza,” said Hamdouna. He is one of thousands of Gazans originally from the northern part of the enclave who remain displaced with their families. “Finally, Hamas has agreed to hand over its weapons after Gaza wa...

• Earth barriers now seal off 85pc of boundary • Satellite images show land cleared, olive groves razed, buildings demolished beyond Yellow Line • Troops forcing families from tent camps into ever-shrinking safe zone ISRAEL’s military is systematically expanding an extensive network of earth barriers and shifting demarcation markers deeper into the Gaza Strip, displacing Palestinian families and raising concerns of a prolonged occupation, according to a BBC News report. Under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas last October, Israeli forces agreed to withdraw to a designated demarcation known as the Yellow Line, leaving Israel in temporary control of 53pc of Gaza’s territory. However, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu recently stated the military controlled over 60pc of the teritory, and in May said his directive was to increase that area to 70pc, the report said. Hamas maintains that Israel is violating the agreement by pushing the Yellow Line westward. The IDF, meanwhile, described its pos...

Israeli attacks kill 3 Palestinians, injure 20 in Gaza despite ceasefire

Israel will allow a multinational security force to enter Gaza as proposed under US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for the enclave, an Israeli official said on Sunday, a day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Washington. Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Sunday approved the legal framework that would allow the force’s entry to Gaza, the official said. Netanyahu is scheduled to depart for Washington on Monday and is expected to meet Trump on Tuesday. The official said that the mission, called the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), will include 200 members from “friendly countries such as Uganda and Morocco” deploying in areas that are not under Israeli control. Each contingent requires individual Israeli approval to enter Gaza. It was unclear when the forces would deploy. Much of Gaza remains in ruins from two years ​of relentless Israeli bombing triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct 7, 2023. After a ceasefire deal was struck in October, Trump set ​out a 20-point peace...

Reuters video showed rescuers battling flames and removing bodies from the Gaza family home after strike

The recovery plan for war-battered Gaza, under US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP), has been significantly scaled back and, instead of reconstructing the entire territory, now envisions a small pilot project in the south of the besieged territory, the British publication The Guardian reported on Thursday. The board was initially proposed in September 2025 and formally established in January. Under its charter, the US government serves as its official depository and Trump has designated the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace in Washington as the Board’s headquarters. A UN Security Council resolution adopted in mid-November last year authorised the board, along with cooperating states, to establish an international stabilisation force in Gaza following a ceasefire that began in October under a Trump-backed plan accepted by Israel and Hamas. According to the publication, the new pilot project now aims to construct a small temporary camp for a fraction of Gaza’s population, with a Palestinian administ...

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher at the Prime Minister House on Tuesday, where they discussed humanitarian cooperation, disaster preparedness and the situation in Gaza.

Over 1,100 Palestinians killed since Gaza ceasefire, officials say, as truce halts major fighting but not violence

Israeli fire killed 9-year-old Tala Abu Matar in central Gaza, medics said; military gave no immediate comment

An Israeli strike in Gaza prior to the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup clash between Argentina and Egypt killed a top Palestinian aid official who helped organise screenings of the game across the strip, according to media reports. The Associated Press said the blast that killed Mohamed al-Wahidi, an official with Egypt’s relief arm in Gaza, turned “what was supposed to be a moment of celebration — the live screening of a potential upset against Argentina by an Arab team — into a reminder of how the near-daily Israeli strikes are continuing to kill civilians despite a truce reached in October”. The report also quoted Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital, as saying that the strike that killed al-Wahidi on Tuesday hit a car in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at dusk. He said three others were killed in the attack, including the driver, Ahmed Daghmush, 33, and two brothers, 10-year-old Hamza al-Deri and 8-year-old Fari, According to the publication, the Israeli military said that al-Wahidi wa...

A United Nations inquiry on Wednesday expressed concern at reports of abuse against a prominent Palestinian doctor seized by the Israeli military in Gaza in December 2024, who is still being held in Israel. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Rights groups and Abu Safiya’s lawyer have said his life is in imminent danger, and he continues to be held without charge, according to the Physicians for Human Rights Israel, an Israeli rights group. “The actions of the Israeli Prison Service guards towards Palestinian detainees raise grave concerns of violations of international law that likely amount to international crimes. “Dr Abu Safiya’s medical condition is the direct result of these actions,” the UN inquiry said in a statement. An Israel Prison Service (IPS) spokesperson said on Wednesday, “The allegations and character...

Palestinian group Hamas announced on Monday the dissolution of the body that has governed the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades, clearing the way for a technocratic committee to implement civilian rule. The move marks a significant political shift by Hamas, which has run Gaza since it seized control from Palestine’s Fatah group in 2007 after winning legislative elections the previous year. Since a ceasefire took effect in Gaza last October between Hamas and Israel, the group has repeatedly said it is prepared to step aside from day-to-day governance, but the thorny issue of its disarmament remains unresolved. “The head of the government’s emergency committee Mohammed al-Farra has officially submitted his resignation,” Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Hamas’ government media office told AFP. “He has also decided to dissolve the committee to facilitate the administrative and governmental transition to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).” The NCAG was created by the Board of Peace that US Pr...

More than 90pc of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed and more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 1,000 days since Israel started bombarding the besieged enclave following the retaliatory Hamas attack of Oct 7, 2023, according to the local government’s media office. The Palestinian government’s media office released key statistics on the destruction and death toll on Thursday, marking 1,000 days since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. As of July 2, Israel has seized control of more than 80pc of the Gaza Strip, while 2.4 million people in the territory were being subjected to genocide, starvation and ethnic cleansing, the statement said. A plume of smoke rises above buildings in Gaza City on October 7, 2023 during an Israeli air strike. — AFP/File Of those killed by the Israeli military, more than 21,500 were children and more than 12,500 were women. More than 1,000 of the children killed were under the age of one, the statement said. “More than 520 infants were born and subsequent...