Hamas

Aug. 23 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have warned Hamas of military escalation if the Palestinians do not stop sending children’s kites into Israeli territory.

In a joint statement issued Sunday, the Israeli leaders said the Israel Defense Forces “will act to increase targeted strikes against those responsible” and “evacuate the population” from areas in Gaza used as launch sites for kites, drones and balloons.

The warning came after a “situational assessment” attended by top national security and military officials.

“There will be no return to the state of affairs prior to October 7,” Netanyahu and Katz said. “Israel will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization or any other element in the Gaza Strip to threaten our communities again and compromise our citizens’ sense of security.”

The IDF identified at least six children’s kites that crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory during the past seven days, including four over the weekend, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Military sources said the kites are being sent over by teenagers who are acting on behalf others, most likely Hamas operatives.

IDF officials told Israeli media outlets that nothing suspicious was found on the kites.

However, residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, have linked them with past efforts by Palestinian militants to use such kites to carry incendiary devices into southern Israel and have demanded action to stop them.

In 2018, Palestinians sent burning kites to the Israeli territory, causing damage to thousands of acres of agriculture and nature reserves.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem dismissed the latest kites as “children’s toys” released from Gaza refugee camps.

The threats issued by Israel “are based on fabricated pretexts and are an attempt to justify the continuation of the aggression and violations against our people,” he said in a statement to The Times of Israel.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill 10 Palestinians, targeting police headquarters and a refugee camp in separate attacks.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 10 Palestinians in two separate attacks targeting a Gaza City police post and Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, condemned what it called “a new war crime”.

On Wednesday, medical sources at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said they received nine Palestinian bodies following an attack on the municipal police headquarters in the centre of Gaza City. Another 15 people were wounded.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said the bombardment occurred at a busy time near a park crowded with civilians, including children.

Victims of the Gaza City strike included a newly-appointed Gaza City police chief, the director of a women’s police force, and several officers.

Earlier in the day, a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp killed one Palestinian, medics said, increasing Wednesday’s death toll to at least 10.

The Israeli army claimed its air force struck two Hamas commanders in Nuseirat, and that it later struck a Hamas commander in the Tuffah area of Gaza City, without providing evidence of their affiliation.

In a statement, Hamas rejected Israel’s justification that the strike targeted “resistance leaders”, calling the claim “baseless and false allegations used to justify its aggression and cover up its deliberate targeting of civilian police and unarmed civilians”.

Hamas accused the Israeli government of “deliberately undermining these efforts and dangerously pushing towards reigniting the war of extermination against our people in the Gaza Strip”.

On Tuesday, Israeli strikes killed seven people – including a child – and wounded 14 others at a crowded cafe on Gaza City’s harbour. The city’s port has been turned into a displacement camp, according to Wafa news agency.

The Israeli military again claimed, without providing evidence, that it had targeted Hamas commanders in the enclave.

Diplomatic deadlock

Wednesday’s attacks occurred two days after US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy Jared Kushner visited the region to push for a Trump-backed deal to end to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Kushner’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to break a diplomatic deadlock after Netanyahu rejected an agreement for Israel to withdraw from the Strip in exchange for Hamas disarming.

Following the meeting, Kushner reiterated “Israel’s right to defend itself”. He threatened that Hamas must disarm or the US would support Israel to “finish the job in the appropriate way”.

Aug. 17 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner and other members of his Board of Peace in Jerusalem on Monday to discuss the president’s plans for Gaza.

Trump has called for Hamas to disarm and demilitarize and for Israel to cease its airstrikes and military operations in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has pushed back as Israel has continued to launch strikes.

Monday’s meeting followed negotiations between the Board of Peace and leaders of Hamas. During those talks, Hamas officials shared a list of cease-fire violations allegedly committed by Israeli forces.

Last month, Trump announced that Hamas has agreed to a road map toward disarming. Israel’s continued military operations have complicated that plan. Meanwhile, Netanyahu rejected Trump’s proposal earlier this month, urging that Israel will not pull out of Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed.

NBC News reported that Netanyahu and Kushner reached an agreement that a U.S. military general should supervise the disarming of Hamas. NBC News cited an unnamed source in this reporting.

Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel, and former British Prime MInister Tony Blair were also present for the meeting.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that he and the representatives from the Board of Peace agreed to establish two working groups with two different focuses. One will focus on disarmament and demilitarization. The other will focus on preparations for reconstruction in Gaza, including sanitation efforts, clean water and public health concerns.

Before reconstruction can take place, the sides agreed that Hamas must be disarmed and demilitarized.

Senior Hamas officials, including the movement’s political bureau chief Khalil al-Hayya, held talks with US envoy Jared Kushner in Egypt to discuss disarmament and the future administration of the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas sources cited by Asharq on Sunday.

The sources said the meeting took place in El Alamein with the participation of senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, which have been involved in mediation efforts over Gaza.

According to the report, the Hamas delegation discussed its position on a proposed roadmap for Gaza and expressed its commitment to provisions concerning the inventory and storage of weapons and the transfer of governing authority in the Strip.

The sources also said Hamas expressed readiness to participate in Palestinian elections and operate as a political party within the Palestinian political system.

READ: Kushner accuses Netanyahu of obstructing US Gaza plan

Kushner reportedly stressed that eliminating security threats originating from Gaza and ensuring that the territory is free of weapons were fundamental requirements for advancing the proposed political process.

Hamas, in turn, sought guarantees regarding implementation of the agreement, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a comprehensive ceasefire, and assurances that the implementation process would not be delayed or obstructed.

The Hamas delegation also called for the rapid transfer of administrative responsibilities in Gaza to a Palestinian national committee or technocratic government, alongside the start of recovery and reconstruction efforts.

According to the report, mediators had informed Hamas beforehand that Kushner wanted to meet the movement’s leadership before traveling to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas reportedly viewed the meeting as an opportunity to present its position directly and address outstanding disagreements over implementation of the proposed Gaza roadmap.

READ: El Sisi stresses need to resolve regional crises to preserve stability in meeting with Kushner

Aug. 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump‘s Middle East envoy Jared Kushner on Sunday met with Hamas to discuss the U.S.-backed peace plan for Gaza.

Kusher, Trump’s son-in-law, met with a delegation that included new leader Khalil al-Hawayy in Egypt, the BBC reported.

Trump’s Board of Peace last month said it reached a deal for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. However, Israel last week rejected the 15-point plan that also calls for Israel to withdraw its troops from the enclave and for its reconstruction under a new civilian Palestinian government.

Eight Muslim countries on Sunday issued a statement blasting Israel’s rejection of the plan.

According to the BBC, the meeting was said to be the first at this level since a ceasefire agreement for Gaza was reached last year.

Board of Peace envoys Nickolay Mladenov and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly took part in the meeting, along with representatives of Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.

Kushner also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Kusher, Mladenov, and Blair were to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, according to Israeli media reports.

Netanyahu has said he wants Hamas fully disarmed to implement the plan.”Israel rejects the Board of Peace’s 15-point document on Gaza,” he said. “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia said in a joint statement that Israel’s rejection of the plan threatened Trump’s peace efforts.

Gaza City, the Gaza Strip – Palestinians in Gaza have reacted with a mix of scepticism and frustration to Israel’s rejection of a proposed 15-point plan aimed at ending the war and setting out a framework for the future.

The United States-backed initiative includes provisions for a phased Israeli withdrawal, the gradual disarmament of Hamas, a Palestinian-led civilian administration and steps towards humanitarian aid and reconstruction.

But on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “rejected” the plan, saying its forces will not withdraw until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed”.

For Nesma Harazin, a displaced writer from Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, Netanyahu’s statement came as little surprise, as Israel continued ⁠⁠to carry out near-daily attacks regardless of a so-called “ceasefire” agreed with Hamas last ⁠⁠October.

“We are dealing with an Israeli occupation army that is capable of stopping these operations, but does not accept stopping them and continues to kill the Palestinian people,” said the 27-year-old.

Rather than a “real opportunity” to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians, Harazin said the proposal has been US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu’s plan “from a long time ago”.

Harazin’s scepticism was shared by Mehdi Ahmed, a Gaza City resident whose family home was among the few in his area to remain standing.

“We are under occupation,” said the 53-year-old. “As far as we are concerned, any ceasefire is temporary.”

Since the October “ceasefire”, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,258 people, bringing the overall number since the start of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023 to at least 73,386.

Ahmed warned that even if an agreement produced a period of calm, it might not last.

“Maybe we could sit here for a year without war, but I don’t think it will continue like that,” he said, arguing that the killings and the destruction in Gaza would shape future generations.

“The generations that are coming will not accept these kinds of solutions,” he said. “People who have lost their children, their parents and their families … you cannot expect them to simply forget.”

In a statement late on Sunday, Hamas said it remained committed to fully implementing the plan. It also urged mediating and guarantor countries to “assume their responsibilities” and prevent any “violations or breaches” that could obstruct the process.

The Gaza Government Media Office also blamed Netanyahu for what it described as a reversal of the negotiations and called for international pressure to prevent further escalation.

In a statement issued on Monday, the office said Netanyahu’s rejection of the 15-point document, along with demands including opposition to an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, represented “a clear and unequivocal reversal of the negotiation track”.

‘We have no one’

But Ahmed said his experience of living his “whole life under occupation” and “in hardship” had left him unconvinced that years of negotiations could produce a lasting solution.

“They have been talking about these points for three years … are we going to spend another seven years talking about the points?” he asked, saying that Palestinians had been left without sufficient regional and international support.

“We have no one standing behind us to protect us. Why?”

For Harazin, a meaningful ceasefire would have to include the withdrawal of the Israeli army and an end to attacks, as well as a clear path towards reconstruction and the return of displaced Palestinians.

But following Netanyahu’s declaration, she said she feared further displacement and greater Israeli control over Gaza.

“If the ceasefire plan is rejected, the Israeli occupation army will carry out harsher operations than what we have heard about before in Gaza,” she said.

“Perhaps they will ask us to displace again to the southern areas. There are no buildings left standing in Gaza City.”

For Ahmed, the possibility of lasting peace is closely tied to the balance of power.

“When you are weak, there are no opportunities, and there is no hope,” he said. “Hope comes when you are strong.”

‘Hope in God’

Unlike Harazin and Ahmed, Ramez Haniyeh sees the proposed plan as a genuine missed opportunity to “end the war and the genocide”.

Haniyeh, who was displaced to Nuseirat in central Gaza after his home was destroyed, said he believed the proposal could have helped end the fighting and “stop the suffering” of Palestinians in the territory.

For Haniyeh, that would mean more than simply an end to Israeli attacks.

“Withdrawal, then reconstruction, and living with dignity,” he said when asked what he expected from a ceasefire.

But he fears the rejection could instead bring another escalation.

“I expect them to create a new target bank, so that things will escalate and there will be more bloodshed in the coming period,” he said.

Haniyeh described the humanitarian and economic conditions in Gaza as deteriorating, with widespread unemployment and many people unable to afford basic necessities.

“The situation is very bad, and it is getting worse every day,” he said. “There are some food and drink items available now, but there is no one who can afford to buy them.”

Despite his pessimism, Haniyeh said his hope rests on faith.

“I have hope in God, but there is no hope that this war will end,” he said. “It will continue until God relieves us.”

Despite her doubts about the proposal, Harazin said she also had “hope in God”.

“As long as we are Muslims, World War I ended and World War II ended too, so we have hope that the war in Gaza will end.”

Gaza Health Ministry says hospitals receive bodies of two Palestinians as Netanyahu rejects Trump plan to end war.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least one person as Palestinian health authorities have confirmed another death after a body was recovered from beneath the rubble in the war-shattered enclave.

Israeli forces shot and killed one Palestinian east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported, quoting medical sources.

The Gaza Ministry of Health confirmed on Sunday that hospitals had received the bodies of two Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, including one recovered from the rubble.

At least five people, including children, were wounded in Israeli attacks in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah on Saturday, QNA reported.

Local sources said several people were wounded when an Israeli tank opened fire on tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis. Among them was a woman who was critically wounded. A girl was seriously wounded by Israeli army fire in the al-Mawasi coastal area of Rafah.

Israeli artillery also shelled areas east of Khan Younis, and Israeli fire wounded several more people in the al-Mahatta area of Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the overall death toll since Israel launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023 was 73,386 with 174,250 wounded.

The remains of many people killed in Israeli attacks are still buried under rubble, and those deaths are uncounted, the ministry added. Ambulance and Palestinian Civil Defence crews remain unable to reach them.

Since a “ceasefire” took effect in October, the Health Ministry has recorded 1,258 people killed by Israel, 4,139 wounded and 807 bodies recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel has rejected United States President Donald Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, telling a cabinet meeting that Israeli forces “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed”.

The rejection follows a similar position taken last week by the US-led Board of Peace, which said an Israeli withdrawal would only proceed once Hamas’s disarmament is complete, leaving both the ceasefire’s terms and any timeline for Israel’s exit from Gaza unresolved even as casualties continue to mount.

‘We’re going backwards.’ Palestinians in Gaza say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of the US-backed 15-point plan has deepened uncertainty over an end to the war. Hamas says it remains committed to the agreement.

Aug. 9 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel rejects a U.S.-backed 15-point plan to disarm Gaza.

Last month, President Donald Trump‘s Board of Peace created the plan for the gradual disarmament of Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory.

But in a cabinet meeting Sunday, a readout from Netanyahu’s office from a meeting of government ministers said, “I want to be clear here — Israel is ruling out the 15-point plan.”

He said he has told the Trump administration about his concerns.

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.

“We are now discussing this with the Americans,” he said. “They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand up to those things.”

He reiterated his opposition to a two-state solution.

“As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will be established — not in Gaza and not in the West Bank,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu and his coalition are facing a difficult re-election vote in late October.

“Contrary to all those who preach to us, we do what must be done for Israel’s security and we can and will stand our ground even against our best friends when necessary,” Netanyahu added.

Hamas has said that handing over its heavy weapons was contingent on Israel ending “all forms of aggression” and withdrawing from Gaza.

“We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ politburo, said on X Sunday.

Since the cease-fire last October, Israel has continued to strike Gaza.

Israel’s military occupies more than half of Gaza, and Netanyahu’s far-right allies have implied that they want to expand the control. They lauded Netanyahu’s comments.

“The [Israeli military] cannot retreat one millimeter in the Gaza Strip,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

Aug. 4 (UPI) — Hundreds gathered Tuesday in Gaza City to mourn more than 100 people killed in 2023 in one of the deadliest Israeli military strikes of the war.

The 112 coffins, each covered with a Palestinian flag, contained mostly the remains of those from a single extended family group — the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan. About 40 were children.

“O nation, why are children getting killed in Gaza?” said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman of Gaza’s Civil Defense, at the funeral. “Why are women getting killed in Gaza? Why are massacres committed against innocents in Gaza?”

Mourners scattered flower petals over the bodies and prayed for the dead before they carried the coffins to their burial site.

CBS News reported that Israel’s military said in a statement that it “does not deliberately target the civilian population and takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.” It passed the blame to Hamas,saying that it “systemically operates from within, beneath and in close proximity to densely populated areas and civilian infrastructure, exploiting the civilian population to shield its military activities.”

It took nearly three years to recover the bodies because of ongoing attacks by Israel. The original attack in November 2023 struck a residential block in Gaza City. At the time, people could only recover about 40b odies with the tools available, but more than 300 were presumed killed.

More recently, civil defense recovery teams were able to dig through the rubble and exhume the remains of the 112 people memorialized Tuesday. In addition, about 150 people are still missing.

In June, a United Nations commission found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that security forces “deliberately targeted and killed” Palestinian children. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Israeli officials deny this and say Hamas attempted genocide in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. About 1,200 people were killed in that attack, while five Israeli soldiers have died since the October 2025 cease-fire.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 73,000 people in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. That included more than 1,250 people since the cease-fire.

Netanyahu and board director Maldenov meet amid tensions over Gaza disarmament roadmap and recent Israeli attacks.

The US-led Board of Peace has said that an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will only take place after the disarmament of Hamas is complete, following a meeting between the body’s director, Nickolay Mladenov, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The meeting on Monday in West Jerusalem came as Israeli politicians signalled their displeasure with the deal, announced by US President Donald Trump last Thursday.

“Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the [Israeli military] beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators,” the Board of Peace, established by Trump in January to oversee the administration of Gaza after Israel’s genocidal war, said. “This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons, and the tunnels alike.”

The “Yellow Line” is the term used to refer to the demarcation line behind which Israeli forces continue to base themselves in Gaza.

“The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance,” the Board of Peace added in a social media post after the meeting.

For its part, Hamas has insisted that the deal will not be implemented unless Israel implements its part of the agreement.

During the talks, Mladenov urged Netanyahu to stop attacks on Gaza, two people familiar with the meeting told The Associated Press news agency. Israel has steadfastly refused to do so, despite an October 2025 “ceasefire”, since which it has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, including more than 36 after the disarmament deal was announced.

Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since its genocidal war began in October 2023.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu’s office said that the version of the agreement made public “does not reflect Israel’s positions”, and that its concerns had been shared with the US.

Members of the Israeli prime minister’s far-right government have already signalled that they want to backtrack on the deal.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the agreement was “completely different” to the one the Israeli government had approved, and demanded a new vote “immediately”.

Israel has repeatedly flouted agreements and has been accused of being unwilling to make concessions during negotiations. The latest reversal comes despite a push from Trump to secure a deal, but months ahead of an Israeli election in which the government is under pressure from its base to demonstrate it has achieved total victory in Gaza.

Mladenov criticised the strikes over the weekend, without directly naming Israel. “Achieving a lasting peace is hard but achievable if everyone makes their best efforts,” he wrote.

Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye, which mediated the disarmament deal, issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s targeting of civilians and healthcare facilities as a “flagrant violation of international law”.

Hamas said it and other Palestinian factions remained committed to the completion of the second phase of the ceasefire, and were awaiting a clear, official response from Mladenov and the mediators.

Strikes hit Gaza homes two days after US unveiled plan for Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli forces have killed at least five Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip.

At least two people were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in central Deir el-Balah, while three others were killed in a strike on an apartment in northern Gaza City, according to local officials.

The strikes came on Sunday, two days after US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace published a 15-point roadmap for implementing last year’s Gaza ceasefire agreement, extending a pattern of continued Israeli strikes despite diplomatic breakthroughs.

The roadmap has yet to be implemented on the ground. Hamas has said it will hand over its weapons for storage only after Israel halts military operations and withdraws its forces in line with last year’s agreement. An Israeli official told the Reuters news agency there would be no withdrawal from current positions unless Hamas undergoes “genuine disarmament”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the initiative, but far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called it unacceptable and said Israel should continue targeting Hamas leaders.

Former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, based in the United Arab Emirates, said Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser on the US initiative, told him he was working with Israel to halt the attacks on Gaza. Dahlan said talks with Washington were continuing, and that the agreement’s success now depended on Israel fully ending its daily strikes.

Separately, Israeli strikes destroyed a medical supply warehouse in central Gaza on Saturday, leaving a crater 20 metres (66ft) wide and 10 metres (33ft) deep, part of a broader wave of attacks that has continued despite the ceasefire push.

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least two Palestinians and wounded at least 10 others, hours after Hamas agreed to a draft peace deal drawn up by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The agreement would have Hamas disarm in phases, matched by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Some Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis have been giving their reaction to the plan to the BBC.

Tala, an 18-year-old who has been living in a tent in Gaza since her home was destroyed in air strikes, said “every time people hear about a possible ceasefire, we hope that it will finally end”.

“But when these promises are broken, it creates more fear,” she told BBC Newsbeat.

The university student said daily life remains “very challenging”, adding: “Every day comes with a new difficulty, and we are constantly thinking about safety and basic needs.”

“What matters most is stopping the fighting, protecting civilians and setting a new chapter of re-building,” she said.

In Israel Jonny said he “prays” that the ceasefire in Gaza can work. “I don’t see an ending to this cycle, but I pray it’s the case,” he told the BBC.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told CNN that Israel is “looking forward to implementing” the deal, but added: “We have to verify what they [Hamas] are doing, not what they are saying.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the proposed agreement as “the only good news in recent days”.

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the focus must be on implementing the full 20-point peace plan, including “withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza and respect for the ceasefire by all parties”.

He added that conditions “remain appalling” in Gaza and said Israel “must immediately end the unacceptable restrictions on aid”. Israel denies it is restricting the entry of aid.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,290 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

WASHINGTON — President Trump reaffirmed Friday that Hamas has agreed to disarm and relinquish control of Gaza to a newly created Palestinian government, a milestone he cast as a critical step in the long-stalled effort to end the war in the territory.

The agreement, which the president initially announced in a Truth Social post Thursday evening, capped months of negotiations overseen by the Board of Peace, a body created by the Trump administration last year to oversee talks with Hamas and Israel over the future of Gaza.

“As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors,” Trump wrote.

But uncertainty looms over the agreement, with Hamas saying Friday it would begin disarming only if Israel halts all military operations in Gaza and Israeli officials expressing skepticism about the deal in news interviews Friday. Trump, during a Cabinet meeting Friday at Camp David, Md., acknowledged the possibility of the deal going awry, saying it is likely the agreement’s implementation could go through its “ups and downs.”

“It’s a very complex situation over there,” Trump said. “The people are very complex and difficult.”

Trump added that Israel was “very happy” with the deal. He also said that the Board of Peace intends to take possession of Hamas’ weapons when it relinquishes them.

Trump, who faces public pressure over his handling of a broadening war in Iran and the economic impact it is having on Americans, downplayed the unpopularity of his policies and said he hopes Americans vote for Republicans when they head to the polls in November.

At the same time, he defended his military strategies in the Middle East, even as he was unable to provide a clear timeline for when the conflict in Iran will end.

“We’re in for five months, and we have obliterated their military capacity. Again, they’ve got some left, but soon they won’t have some left,” Trump said. He added that he was “losing faith” in Iranian leaders amid negotiations because he said they “lie.”

Trump, however, argued that the deal with Hamas is an indication that his administration’s strategy will succeed in Iran.

“Nobody thought that it would be possible to disarm Hamas. That shows you how much success we’re having with Iran, because if you went four months ago or five months ago, a deal like that would have been impossible,” Trump said.

Hamas, for its part, has confirmed it would begin disarmament, but in a statement Friday said it was contingent on Israel halting all attacks in Gaza and fulfilling provisions of the first phase of a ceasefire deal that was signed in October 2025.

Hamas, which said it was approaching the proposal with “responsibility and positivity,” also took the unprecedented step of agreeing to a sequenced decommissioning of a range of armory, described to include: “police weapons, heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots and tunnels, personal weapons and the weapons of militias.”

But the group linked it to a raft of processes, including Israel’s withdrawal from the enclave and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state — both nonstarters for Israel’s government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had yet to comment on the proposal by Friday afternoon, but several Israeli officials expressed skepticism if not outright rejection of the proposal.

“In response to various publications this morning about political progress in the Gaza Strip, Israel has reiterated that there will be no IDF withdrawal from the current Yellow Line without the genuine disarmament of Hamas,” a senior Israeli official was quoted as saying in the Times of Israel newspaper.

The official referred to the demarcation line behind which Israeli troops withdrew under the ceasefire agreement. When the agreement went into effect in October 2025, the Yellow Line marked off territory comprising about 53% of Gaza. But Israel has repeatedly shifted the line westward, swallowing up more of the enclave with the intent to control 70% of it, according to Israeli officials.

Speaking to CNN on Friday, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Israel would have to verify what Hamas is doing with regard to disarmament, “not what they are saying.”

“Disarmament means the weapons are out of Gaza,” he said. He added that the idea of a Palestinian state was “not on the table.”

And in an example of the fervent opposition the deal is likely to face in Israeli political circles, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — a hard-line member of Netanyahu’s government — dismissed the deal as “unacceptable” and that suspending Israel’s attacks on the enclave would only allow Hamas to reconstitute itself.

“The assassinations in Gaza must continue, the encouragement of [Palestinian] emigration [from the enclave] must happen. Israel must win,” he said in a post on Telegram.

The agreement as laid out by the Board of Peace involves a 15-point “roadmap” with several provisions, including security, governance, reconstruction, the deployment of international peacekeeping forces and Israeli withdrawal. Those points, which were agreed to Thursday, are meant to carry out Trump’s broader plan for the territory.

All parties reaffirm their commitment to the “comprehensive plan” announced by Trump in September, which involves stopping the fighting in Gaza, complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip, and “a credible political path that achieves self-determination and [Palestinian] Statehood.”

Israel should “without delay” fulfill its remaining commitments in phase one, including cessation of military attacks. Hamas too should stop all attacks “without delay,” the agreement says.

Once those milestones are reached, the Palestinian-led National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG — which Israel has thus far prevented from entering Gaza — would take on responsibilities in the strip, along with an International Verification Committee that will certify progress on both sides.

The NCAG administers the police force and controls its weapons, and will eventually become the only party in Gaza with arms. It will also administer and implement a process to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels.

The process will be linked to a phased Israeli withdrawal.

Regional and Western governments welcomed the proposal’s announcement while acknowledging the difficulties facing its implementation. It also brought a measure of cautious hope in Gaza, where more than nine months after the ceasefire was signed conditions remain nightmarish.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an assault on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others were kidnapped, the enclave has been the target of a furious Israeli military campaign that has killed more than 73,000 people and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents. Much of Gaza is a rubble-encrusted moonscape, spurring rights groups and the U.N. to accuse Israel of genocide.

Despite Trump’s optimism, the deal comes at a delicate moment for Israel’s leaders, as the country gears up for an acrimonious election fight at the end of October that could see Netanyahu — who is on trial for corruption charges and could be imprisoned if he loses — dethroned.

Already trailing in the polls, he can ill afford appearing soft on Hamas, especially among a pool of candidates eager to excoriate him for his post-Oct. 7 legacy.

“The outrageous gap between Netanyahu’s promises and reality is exposed. After the heavy prices, the fallen and the wounded, he has capitulated in his political weakness without achieving the war’s objectives, instead of ending it from a position of strength,” said Gadi Eisenkot, an election contender and the former military chief of staff responsible for the Dahiyah Doctrine, the Israeli military’s strategy of targeting large-scale civilian infrastructure.

“The State of Israel must not accept a reality in which Hamas survives, rearms, and waits for the opportunity to carry out the next massacre!” Eisenkot wrote on X.

At the same time, with Trump already facing criticism for joining the Israeli leader in assaulting Iran, Netanyahu can’t be seen as scuttling a Trump-brokered agreement in Gaza.

Ceballos reported from Washington, Bulos from Beirut.

Trump said Israel strongly supports an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas, describing it as a major breakthrough that marks a significant step for the Middle East. He cautioned the process would likely face “ups and downs” because of the complexity of the situation.

Hamas has agreed to gradually disarm in Gaza as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. The US president called the deal ‘historic’. Here’s what we know.

July 30 (UPI) — Negotiators implementing the Gaza cease-fire plan and Iran-backed Hamas have reached a framework for disarming militant groups in the Palestinian enclave, President Donald Trump announced Thursday.

The tentative agreement could mark a significant breakthrough toward ending Israel’s war in Gaza, though it is contingent on Israel agreeing to withdraw its troops. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s administration has yet to comment.

“This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people,” Trump said in a statement.

“At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks.”

Trump’s so-called Board of Peace — a coalition of 28 countries, including Israel and weighted toward Middle Eastern and smaller or midsize nations — was formed in January and is tied to a U.N.-backed, 20-point plan for the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza, which has been devastated by the war.

According to a late Thursday statement from the Board of Peace, the agreement concludes months of negotiations and is the first time Hamas has committed to disarmament.

The board said that under the agreement, Israeli forces are to withdraw from Gaza after Hamas and other militant groups in the Palestinian enclave relinquish their weapons.

Trump said that after Israel withdraws, the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to assume responsibility for security of Gaza.

The agreement “holds the promise of delivering significant benefits to the people of Gaza, who have waited for too long for a better future, and security to the people of Israel,” the board said.

Egypt, Qatar and Turkey mediated the agreement, Trump said.

This is a developing story.

July 29 (UPI) — The Israeli military on Wednesday accused Hamas of storing weapons inside a mosque it bombed in northern Gaza on Tuesday, an allegation Palestinian sources called false.

The mosque was “another example of terror organizations using civilian infrastructure for terror purposes,” The Times of Israel reported, citing the Israeli military.

Israel said the weapons were to be used in attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and Israeli civilians, and the sites were hit “to remove the threat.”

The Hamas government said the allegations were “entirely false” and that Israel used the claim “to justify its attacks on mosques,” The New York Times reported. There were no reports of deaths from the mosque attack, but there were four deaths from attacks in Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported.

The Israeli military said it gave advance warning of the attack to civilians “to mitigate the risk of harm to them.”

“It was a terrifying sound,” Riyad al-Masri, 31, who lives near the mosque, told The New York Times. “It shook the ground.”

Despite a cease-fire signed in October, Israel has increased its attacks on Gaza in recent weeks.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in Gaza since the cease-fire, on top of more than 73,000 killed during the war, according to the Gaza health ministry. Its list does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, The New York Times reported.

Under the 20-point peace plan for Gaza negotiated by the United States, Hamas was required to disarm. The group has agreed to give up administrative control of Gaza, but it has not yet agreed to disarm.

IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai said earlier this month that Israel would continue strikes in Gaza if Hamas doesn’t disarm, The New York Times reported.

“At the end of the day, this place will be demilitarized, and there will be no Hamas,” he said in remarks published by Channel 14, a right-wing Israeli TV station.

Months after the United Nations Security Council backed a comprehensive framework to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Israel’s security cabinet has approved a highly constrained pilot project to allow foreign security forces into a narrow pocket of the devastated territory.

Israeli media reported on Sunday that the so-called International Stabilization Force (ISF), part of United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan”, will include 200 members from countries such as Morocco and Uganda deploying to a designated “test” zone in the southern city of Rafah.

While international officials have welcomed the move, analysts describe the limited deployment as a calculated diplomatic gesture with little practical effect that comes as the US-backed peace process has largely stalled and as Israel’s deadly attacks continue.

Instead of a genuine transition towards peace, they argue, the move is a political manoeuvre designed to deflect US pressure ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week, while simultaneously entrenching the geographic fragmentation of the Gaza Strip.

“Netanyahu is going to Washington to say ‘no’ to the broader demands of withdrawal” from the Strip, says Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst. “Instead, he is offering this alternative: ‘Take this small appetiser, take this minor achievement, and play within this highly restricted space.’”

Scaled-back forces and ‘rubber batons’

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the original plan anticipated the deployment of 500 Moroccan troops to a refugee camp in the city. The drastic reduction to just 200 troops may indicate that Israel’s political-security cabinet has decided to divide the deployment into even smaller, heavily controlled stages.

The force will operate in full coordination with the Israeli military. According to the Israeli news outlet Ynet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was the sole cabinet member to vote against the measure, arguing that the Palestinian group Hamas had failed to fulfill its commitment to disarm and insisting that “the solution in Gaza is to encourage migration”.

Israeli media also reported that the government maintains that the Israeli military will retain control of the “Yellow Line” – a unilaterally imposed boundary that effectively places up to 70 percent of the Gaza Strip under tight Israeli control – and that no withdrawal will take place until Hamas has fully disarmed.

The original framework endorsed by UNSC Resolution 2803 called for the deployment of an international force alongside a transitional Palestinian administration.

Earlier this month, Hamas announced it would dissolve its government in Gaza and hand over power to a new, Palestinian technocratic governing authority called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).

Analysts said Hamas’s move was likely designed to apply pressure on Israel and demonstrate the group’s commitment to handing over governance and allowing the rebuilding of the territory.

The pilot programme also envisions the NCAG’s entry to oversee civil affairs in Gaza. Yet, according to Haaretz, the Palestinian police accompanying them will be stripped of firearms, permitted to carry only “rubber batons and tasers”.

Meanwhile, preparations on the ground appear to be moving forward to accommodate this new security architecture. Israeli Army Radio recently broadcast a video showing a military base under construction in the southern “Gaza envelope” near the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

The station reported that the sprawling facility is being built specifically to host the incoming multinational forces before their deployment.

Despite the severe Israeli restrictions, Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for the Board of Peace, welcomed the Israeli cabinet’s decision, praising it as a “critical part of the agreed framework for stabilizing Gaza, supporting demilitarization, and enabling the transition to effective Palestinian transitional administration”.

A ‘sweetener’ for Washington

To understand the timing and motivation behind the decision, experts pointed to the diplomatic deadlock surrounding the US-brokered peace initiative. Trump’s plan envisioned a phased approach, bridged by the handover of Gaza to a technocratic committee. However, this framework has been stalled by Israel’s refusal to link a ceasefire to the broader political situation and its rejection of a phased withdrawal.

Afifa said the “failure” of the US administration’s flagship initiative had left it “embarrassed” as the project that was repeatedly highlighted by Trump “as a great achievement, resulted in zero”.

With Netanyahu heading to Washington, the Israeli prime minister desperately needed a deliverable, said Afifa. The cabinet’s decision, passed hastily via a telephone vote during a Knesset recess to avoid internal coalition fractures, provides exactly that, he added.

Mamoun Abu Amer, an expert on Israeli affairs, echoed this assessment. He viewed the rushed cabinet vote as an attempt to preempt US pressure and present an image of compliance to Trump, while fundamentally altering the agreement’s core terms to suit Israel’s long-term security strategy.

Abu Amer also said that Israel has effectively turned Resolution 2803 upside down through selective and highly conditional implementation.

“This is an inverted process,” said Abu Amer. The original text implied that the NCAG would enter Gaza, the ISF would deploy and the Israeli military would withdraw to new lines to allow for stabilisation. Instead, Israel is demanding unilateral disarmament first, while keeping the technocratic committee besieged within an Israeli security envelope.

Abu Amer also suggested the requirement for the Palestinian police force to only carry rubber batons and tasers reflects a premeditated Israeli strategy to strip the Palestinian administration of genuine law enforcement capabilities, reducing them to subcontractors managing municipal decay in a thoroughly devastated environment under a strict military occupation.

The NCAG itself appeared to reject this Israeli paradigm. In a recent statement, the committee declared it would only assume responsibility for Gaza after UNSC approval of the force’s deployment and, crucially, a full Israeli military withdrawal.

‘False witnesses’

The spatial realities of the Israeli plan reveal a strategy of deep fragmentation and long-term control, experts said, pointing to the cabinet’s decision to explicitly restrict the ISF and the technocrats to operating strictly outside the “Yellow Line”.

Afifa warned that transforming a small pocket of Rafah into an “experimental bubble” subverts the idea of Gaza as a single, contiguous territorial entity.

“This raises a massive question about the fate of two million people,” he said. “If this entire project is reduced to a few thousand individuals selected under Israeli criteria, it means a tacit agreement from the international community to leave two million Gazans hostage to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis while Israel claims to be implementing a peace plan.”

This also carries significant diplomatic risks for the participating nations. Israeli media reported the cabinet’s decision stipulated that ISF contributors must be nations that have peace agreements with Israel and do not pursue legal actions against it in international forums.

“It is not wise for an Arab country like Morocco to be a party to helping Netanyahu implement his political agenda,” said Abu Amer, urging participating nations to reject the altered Israeli formula and insist on a comprehensive withdrawal.

Failing to do so, he cautioned, would reduce foreign troops to mere security buffers, acting as “false witnesses” to the continuation of the occupation and the destruction of the Palestinian society.

Four other Palestinians were also killed by Israeli air strikes, and a policeman died from wounds sustained last week.

The head of the Hamas-led police force in northern Gaza has been killed by an Israeli air strike, while other attacks have claimed the lives of five more Palestinians, the Hamas-run interior ministry and medics said.

Brigadier-General Abdel-Nasser Al-Maqadma, who also served as governor of northern Gaza, was targeted in the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City on Saturday. The Israeli military said he had also been a member of the military wing of Hamas.

Israeli strikes also killed a Palestinian medic in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and two people in a house in Khan Younis. Israel’s military said the house was attacked to target a member of the Islamic Jihad group

Later on Saturday, another air strike on Khan Younis killed high school student Khaled Al-Breim. Relatives said he was killed as he sought to bring ⁠sweets to distribute to relatives and friends who had flocked into his family home to offer their congratulations as he had just concluded high school and was preparing for university.

A sixth death was a policeman who was wounded by an Israeli strike last week and died from his injuries on Saturday.

In recent months, Israel has killed dozens of members of the Hamas-led police force, alleging that many were tied to Hamas’ armed wing and represented an active threat.

Hamas accuses Israel of deliberately targeting the force to destabilise the enclave, calling it a further breach of the US-brokered ceasefire reached in October.

The ceasefire deal has been mostly ignored by Israel. Since the truce agreement was signed, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,180 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Over the same period, four Israeli soldiers have been killed in attacks in Gaza.

July 18 (UPI) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mandani on Saturday said his government is reviewing whether it could legally arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over accusations of war crimes.

Netanyahu is expected to visit the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September.

In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the prime minister’s arrest over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including starvation and attacking a civilian population.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told The New York Times. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years.”

Mandani said his legal team is reviewing the city’s options.

“We’re not talking about a personal assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu,” the mayor told The Times. “We’re talking about the International Criminal Court and the fact that they have a warrant out for this prime minister’s arrest, and I think it’s important to talk about the weight that that has as a charge and that also, as the mayor of New York City, I’ll be following the laws of New York City.”

Netanyahu has denied the ICC charges and disputes the court’s jurisdiction.

In a previous interview, the prime minister claimed without evidence that Mandani is a Hamas supporter.

“He is with the terror actors,” he told WABC. “I think, secretly, he hates America.”

Michael Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., called Mandani’s comments “pure political theater.”

“The U.S. is not party to the Rome Statute that underlies the ICC,” he wrote on X, adding, “The U.N. Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of government.”