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

By WAFAA SHURAFA BASSEM MROUE and SAMYA KULLAB DEIR al-BALAH Gaza Strip AP Hamas revealed Friday it has given a positive response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but explained further talks were needed on implementation Related Articles In contemporary times in History July Declaration of Independence adopted in Philadelphia Tibetans in exile wonder Will the next Dalai Lama be as charismatic as this one Strikes kill Palestinians in Gaza including people waiting for aid officers say Currently in History July Union wins Battle of Gettysburg US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza 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 comment came as Israeli airstrikes killed Palestinians in Gaza early Friday while a hospital explained another people died in shootings while seeking aid The U N human rights office commented it has recorded Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid The majority 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 explained Efforts ongoing to halt the war Trump mentioned 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 declaration late Friday Hamas declared 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 disclosed the ceasefire could start as early as next week but he explained talks were needed first to work out how several Palestinian prisoners would be published in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce Hamas has revealed 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 announced 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 noted 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 group We ll see what happens We re going to know over the next hours Trump stated reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when petitioned if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire killed Friday while seeking aid Administrators at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis commented 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 bystanders have mentioned 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 miles through an Israeli military zone where troops control the road The Israeli military has commented 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 summary it noted in a comment that it was examining reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid It stated it was working at minimizing workable friction between the population and Israeli forces including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes Separately viewers have reported 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 mentioned 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 declared 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 An Israeli army tank advances in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel on Thursday July AP Photo Leo Correa Israel s military commented it was looking into Friday s released airstrikes It had no immediate comment on the stated shootings surrounding the aid trucks U N investigates shootings near aid sites The spokeswoman for the U N human rights office Ravina Shamdasani explained the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings But she revealed 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 declared 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 Robustness Ministry and of trying to falsely smear our effort Shamdasani the U N rights office spokesperson explained the AP that the evidence is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources including physiological human rights and humanitarian organizations Rik Peeperkorn representative of the World Wellness Organization disclosed Nasser Hospital the biggest hospital operating in the south receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day greater part coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites The International Committee of the Red Cross also declared 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 bulk suffering gunshot injuries while on their way to the food distribution sites Also on Friday Israel s military noted 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 Healthcare Ministry in Gaza mentioned 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 health professionals employed by the Hamas regime and its numbers are widely cited by the U N and international organizations The war began when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel killing people and taking roughly hostages Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States Canada and European Union Kullab shared from Jerusalem and Mroue from Beirut Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed