Hamas says it has received Witkoff’s ceasefire proposal

The Palestinian group has issued a statement saying it received a proposal for a ceasefire agreement from United States special envoy Steve Witkoff.

It added that it was studying it “responsibly, in a manner that serves the interests of our people, provides them with relief, and achieves a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.

Netanyahu prepared to move forward with Witkoff ceasefire proposal: Israeli media

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the families of Israeli captives that he is prepared to move forward with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s temporary ceasefire proposal, Israeli media are reporting.

White House says Israel ‘signed off’ on ceasefire proposal sent to Hamas

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt says the proposal that the Trump administration submitted to Hamas earlier today was “backed and supported” by Israel. “Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,” Leavitt told reporters.

“I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home.”

Many Israelis apathetic or agree with Israel using starvation as a ‘tool’ in Gaza: Analyst

Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, has told Al Jazeera that many Israelis are completely unmoved by the images of hunger and desperation coming out of Gaza.

“[Starvation] is a tool that Israel is using. Many Israelis believe that the humanitarian crisis and the starvation have forced Hamas to come closer to the [US special Middle East envoy] Witkoff proposal to agree to a ceasefire and to release the captives,” he said, speaking from Tel Aviv.

“I think the mood in Israel about the footage that is coming from Gaza – there’s not much in the Israeli media, but we see it in other networks – is on a scale from apathy to some people saying [Palestinians] deserve it.”

Eldar also commented on reports that Israel has accepted the latest ceasefire proposal made by Witkoff, saying it was “unusual” for Israel to come out and agree to a proposal first and that Netanyahu may be betting on the plan being impossible for Hamas to accept so that he can paint them as the “bad guys” and continue the war.

“It happened before … and Netanyahu put the blame on them,” he said.

Hamas official says US proposal means ‘continuation of killing’

Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim has told the Reuters news agency that the Trump administration’s ceasefire proposal is “still under discussion” by the group.

As we’ve been reporting, the White House said earlier that Israel had “signed off” on the proposal, which Washington sent over to Hamas to review.

Naim also told the AFP news agency that the proposal meant “the continuation of killing and famine … and does not meet any of our people’s demands, foremost among them halting the war”.

“Nonetheless, the movement’s leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,” he said.

The blame game has already begun
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-netanyahu-reportedly-says-israel-has-accepted-uss-new-gaza-truce/

Why is it so hard to end the war?
Because it's not a fucking war, it's a genocide backed by the US and most of the West.

I fear this latest ceasefire 'momentum' is nothing but another distraction.

Chaos at Gaza aid distribution points ‘predictable and preventable’: Advocate

Shaina Low, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) communications adviser in Palestine, says the scenes of Palestinians desperately seeking food highlight the risks involved in bypassing coordinated humanitarian distribution systems.

“What we’re seeing now – people walking tens of kilometres to access distribution sites, the chaos that is unfolding, the way that Palestinians are being corralled to reach aid – it’s just devastating,” Low told Al Jazeera from Amman, Jordan.

“People have been suffering for nearly 20 months of hostilities now and are desperate for any type of food or any type of assistance to help them and their families survive. No one should be subjected to this type of undignified treatment and the danger that it poses for civilians.”

Low added that these distribution sites are being used “to advance Israel’s political and military objectives” to displace Palestinians. In contrast, humanitarian groups such as the NRC and the United Nations deliver assistance directly to people in need, where they are.

“That ensures that vulnerable people … don’t have to go long distances. We make sure that aid reaches people in need and is fit for what their needs are. The boxes that they have been receiving are nowhere near adequate to meet the desperate needs of a population that’s been starved for the past 80-plus days.”

“What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us,” Areef told the AFP news agency after visiting one of the GHF centres in Gaza. “We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.”

Another resident, 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, also said the situation was “so chaotic”.
“The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads,” Faroukh told AFP. “But the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding.”

_{Palestinians receive aid supplies from the GHF in central Gaza on May 29}

‘Very risky’: Palestinians stuck near aid distribution point

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud says Palestinians who walked to a newly opened aid distribution point at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza are unable to leave due to Israeli military activity in the area.

“Many of the people who showed up at the site are trapped right now and unable to leave the area due to the presence of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles [and] the ongoing shooting,” Mahmoud said.

“They’ve been sending appeals to the Red Cross to coordinate their departure from the area. It’s becoming very risky for them to walk on their own.”

He explained that many of the people who are stuck near the site walked more than 5km (three miles) to reach the distribution point.

“Exhausted, tired, traumatised and hungry – many of the people showed up earlier today just to pick up one food parcel,” he said.

Israel blocking UN from retrieving aid to deliver it to Gaza: Spokesperson

Dujarric, the UN chief’s spokesperson, says there are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing (also known as Kerem Shalom), but Israel has blocked the world body from retrieving the supplies for the past three days.

He explained that the UN must coordinate with COGAT, the Israeli government agency that administers activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.

“We need [Israeli] clearance to go get the material. We need their clearance to go back, and we also need to accept that the route that they’ve … given us a greenlight for is not one where we feel it is unsafe for the cargo and our colleagues to travel on,” Dujarric told reporters.

He said that the last time the United Nations was able to bring goods into Gaza, both the UN and the Israeli authorities had agreed to a route.

“The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods,” Dujarric said.

‘We haven’t seen any food or flour in five days’

Desperation is growing in Gaza as thousands of Palestinians are having to walk long distances to find food. “We have come a long distance, around 10km [6.2 miles] to take this box tainted with blood,” Saher Abu Tahoon told Al Jazeera in central Gaza.

“We need this box because there’s no food to eat. We haven’t seen any food or flour in five days. “We went to get food for our children from a very faraway place. I can’t even carry this box because I am too tired, and I am too hungry.”

Main events on May 29th

• At least 70 Palestinians have been killed since dawn in Israeli attacks across Gaza, including strikes on the central Bureij refugee camp that killed nearly two dozen people.
• Palestinians express growing frustration with a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme that has caused scenes of chaos and deadly violence over the past few days.
• The UN says Israel is blocking it from accessing and distributing much-needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza, with about 600 truckloads of goods stuck at a crossing point.
• Israel has ordered the closure of al-Awda Hospital – the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza – as the World Health Organization says dozens of people remain at the facility.
• The White House says Israel has “signed off” on a new Gaza ceasefire proposal that was delivered to Hamas; the Palestinian group says it is reviewing the plan.

Israel killing Palestinians with weapons paid for by US taxpayers: CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Israel’s bombardment of the Bureij refugee camp earlier today, which killed at least 23 people and injured many others.

“After expelling these Palestinian refugees from their land, the Israeli government slaughtered them in their refugee camp,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

“Blowing up families sleeping in tents is a cowardly, sociopathic war crime that the Israeli occupation has committed again and again with American weapons paid for by American taxpayer dollars. The barbarity and sadism of the Israeli occupation’s war crimes knows no bounds,” he said.

“How much longer will President Trump, his administration and the world see images of dismembered children and burning tents before stopping this genocide?”

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually, and it has provided billions in additional funds since the Israeli military began its deadly bombardment of Gaza in October 2023.

I’ve seen the reality of the new Israel-backed ‘aid’ for Gaza. It’s nothing more than a deadly PR stunt

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/29/gaza-aid-israel-food-distribution-centre

What the GHF is doing is nothing more than a public relations campaign: it is promoting the illusion that aid has begun entering the Strip in a meaningful way. What we have learned is that GHF only distributed eight trucks’ worth of food on Wednesday. Moreover, a US charity, Rahma Worldwide, which had food parcels that it couldn’t get into Gaza and so allowed them to be “taken custody” by GHF, has accused the organisation of using its logo without permission in the aid distribution. (Rahma said it’s opposed to working alongside GHF because of its use of armed security contractors.)Ultimately, there are tens of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip who will not be able to reach the newly created centres. Even if they function, they will not meet the ever-growing daily needs of the population here.

...

Gaza needs at least 500 to 600 trucks every day to meet its humanitarian needs. A handful of centres operating in the south of the Strip is no replacement for the hundreds of distribution centres linked to UN programmes and institutions that have been forced to stop operations by the blockade. What must be said clearly is that there is an urgent need to stop the genocide and allow the unconditional entry of aid. It is only through distribution by UN agencies and the international community – not Israel – that we will begin to alleviate this crisis.

BBC’s shameful coverage on announcement of 22 settlements in West Bank

The Benjamin Netanyahu government on Thursday announced the expansion of its illegal occupation of the occupied West Bank by building 22 more settlements. This is illegal under international law. But Rifat Jawaid was shocked to see the suspicious terminologies used by BBC presenters and reporters on its coverage.

Israel Is Giving Settlers What They Wanted

Real images of Palestinians lining up for aid accused of being AI-generated • FRANCE 24 English

A viral video shared on social media shows a large crowd of Palestinians lining up for aid in a distribution center in Rafah. After this video was posted, users are spreading fake viral claims that the video filmed in the Tel al-Sultan aid distribution site in Gaza was generated using AI. We debunk these claims in this edition of Truth or Fake.

If you can't handle the truth, it must be a lie...

Columbia Grads BURN DIPLOMAS to Protest Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Students

Status Coup reporter Ashley Bishop reported on-the-ground as Columbia University alumni gathered to protest and burn their diplomas in opposition to what they view as the prestigious university's unethical crackdown on its students who have demonstrated in support of Palestinians and against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

No surprise there

Hamas official says it rejects new US Gaza ceasefire plan backed by Israel

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qg5yzqle9o

A senior Hamas official has told the BBC the Palestinian armed group will reject the latest US proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The White House said on Thursday that Israel had "signed off" on US envoy Steve Witkoff's plan and that it was waiting for a formal response from Hamas.

Israeli media cited Israeli officials as saying it would see Hamas hand over 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in two phases in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas official said the proposal did not satisfy core demands, including an end to the war, and that it would respond in due course.

The details of the new proposal have not been made public, but senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that, crucially, it did not contain commitments from Israel to end its war on Gaza, withdraw Israeli troops from the enclave, or allow aid to freely enter the war-torn territory.

The Israeli government has not commented, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told hostages' families on Thursday that he accepted Witkoff's plan.

The BBC might be jumping the gun here, but 99% sure it's still the same 60 day 'ceasefire' proposal (which just means Israel can keep on doing what it does like in Lebanon while still restricting aid as during the previous ceasefire) without any guarantees to end the war.

Same spiel as with Biden and Blinken, change the language a bit, same nonsense.

US official claim Hamas not Netanyahu broke Gaza ceasefire, goes unchallenged

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Thursday claimed that it was Hamas who had violated the Gaza ceasefire in March this year. This despite the fact that it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who had refused to honour the second phase of the US-mediated ceasefire since this entailed withdrawing Israeli troops from Gaza. Not a single media representative cared to correct Bruce for her wild claims.



Despite all the US and Israeli lies, the GHF was one step too far. It's getting more and more attention.

Jeremy Scahill: Shadowy Israeli-U.S. Aid Plan Is Weapon in "Netanyahu's War of Annihilation" in Gaza

"The point of this is to lure Palestinians as though they're animals going into a cage, lure them with the bait of promise of aid, and then entrap them in the south of Gaza." As starving Palestinians in Gaza compete for the limited trickle of supplies admitted into the enclave by a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed humanitarian aid scheme, journalist Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News says the sparse aid is actually another Israeli military tactic "meant to serve as part of Netanyahu's war of annihilation. … They're using food as a weapon of war in an effort to further dehumanize Palestinians."

Israel's Aid Delivery Scandal: A Jaw-Dropping Echo of 1945!

If Israel thought they were in control of their propaganda exercise masquerading as aid, they badly misjudged things!

Gaza: Desperate starvation leads to violence amid Israeli strikes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostage families today that Israel has accepted the latest US ceasefire deal. Hamas is considering the proposal. But in Gaza today there was no let up in the horror - the desperation of hunger increasingly pushing people to violence as aid trickles into the strip. And Israeli strikes continue to rain down terror, with 64 people killed since the early hours.

And many more, the images coming from Gaza can't be hidden anymore in the mainstream media either.

What are the reported terms of the US ceasefire proposal?

A US plan for a ceasefire and captive exchange in Gaza, guaranteed by US President Donald Trump and mediators Egypt and Qatar, includes the following, Reuters reported:

I don't see any withdrawal of troops in there, so Israel gets to maintain occupation of 80% of the Gaza strip? Hamas won't sign off on that. Unless they mean getting out of Gaza in stages with redeploying troops. I doubt it, playing with language like Biden more likely.

‘Destroy, kill’ Hamas: Ben-Gvir to Netanyahu

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is urging Netanyahu to focus on defeating Hamas, instead of a ceasefire agreement.

“Mr Prime Minister, after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again, there is no longer any excuse, for anyone, to continue with this shuffling in Gaza,” the minister said in a post on X.

“We have already missed enough opportunities. It is time to go in with all our might, to destroy, kill and lose Hamas.”

Hamas says it is consulting with Palestinian groups in Gaza over Witkoff’s proposal

Hamas has released a statement saying it is consulting with other Palestinian groups and factions on the ground in Gaza over a temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

The statement comes after an official from the Palestinian group earlier said the proposal its current form would only result in “the continuation of killing and famine” in Gaza.

Israel intensifies attacks on northern Gaza as Hamas considers ceasefire proposal

Israel has issued new forced displacement orders for residents of northern Gaza. Families were forced to wait until sunrise to begin escaping as Israel intensifies their ground operation in the area.

This escalation coincides with the US-brokered ceasefire proposal that outlines a 60-day truce and a phased prisoner exchange with Israeli captives.

Hamas has not delivered its response yet, but the intensification of Israel’s military campaign could be seen as an attempt to put pressure on Hamas to back down and agree to this proposal.

Israel continues to clear out north Gaza with new evacuation orders

The army’s Arabic language spokesperson has said on X that Palestinians in the “Atatra, Jabalia Al-Balad, Shujaiya, Daraj and Zeitoun” areas must immediately leave and move west. Israel has been systematically clearing out parts of the Gaza Strip with orders such as these, pushing the Palestinian population into smaller and smaller areas of the enclave.

The stated goal of its new offensive, Gideon’s Chariot, is to expand its control of the Gaza Strip’s territory, concentrating the people there into tiny sections of the enclave.


_{Palestinians are fleeing as Israel continues its relentless bombardment after issuing more forced displacement orders}

Israel targets south Gaza with bombardment overnight

No functioning hospital remains in Gaza’s north, says hospital director

After a siege on northern Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital for two weeks, Israeli troops have forced its staff and patients to evacuate it, says its director, Dr Mohammed Salha. It was the last functioning hospital in the north, he told Al Jazeera.

“There is no one providing any medical services now,” Salha said. “[We] evacuated the injured people and the patients with very difficult conditions,” he added.

Cases are being referred to Al-Shifa Hospital – a journey difficult for many due to constant Israeli bombing, the director said. “So a lot of people are injured in the streets. A lot of people are killed, and they are murdered in the streets. Nobody can pick them up,” said Salha.

"There is no insurance in the northern Gaza Strip. So who is injured, he or she will die in the streets, and nobody can help them.”

UNRWA: Enough aid to save 200,000 in Gaza waits in our warehouses

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says on X that in Amman, a three-hour drive from Gaza, “we have enough supplies to sustain over 200,000 people for an entire month”.

“Flour, food parcels, hygiene kits, blankets and medical supplies are ready to be delivered”, the agency added, again urging the unrestricted allowance of aid into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since March.

More Palestinians wounded at Gaza aid point

Our correspondent in Gaza reports that several people were wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the central Strip as they tried to reach an aid distribution point set up by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Chaos and a series of violent attacks on starving aid seekers in Gaza over the past week have led to numerous deaths and growing international condemnation of Israel’s aid scheme.

20 Palestinians wounded while trying to reach aid centre

Sources at Gaza hospitals tell Al Jazeera that 20 people have been hit by Israeli fire while trying to reach an aid distribution point set up by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The distribution site, located near Israel’s Netzarim Corridor bisecting the Palestinian enclave, is the third to have been set up, after two distribution points were established in the southern city of Rafah.

‘Isn’t it enough that we’re deprived of food and drink?’

Palestinians fleeing Israel’s latest forced displacement orders, near the Daraj neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City, are distraught at having to find refuge where there isn’t any. “Where are we supposed to go if we’re forced to evacuate this school? There are 5,000 displaced people here – where will they go?” Palestinian resident Salameh Abu al-Bayad told Al Jazeera.

“Isn’t it enough that we’re deprived of food and drink? Now they want us to be out on the streets. What can I say? My only refuge is God.”

Al-Bayad said his situation is a “tragedy”, adding: “We’ve suffered so much. They talk about the Nakba of 1948, but this – this is the real Nakba.” For Mohammad Abu al-Atta, death is better than being displaced again, he said. “There’s no safe place at all. Where can we go?” al-Atta told Al Jazeera.

“We’re better off dying here than being displaced again, because death is more merciful than that. There’s bombing everywhere and the [Israelis] won’t let us live in peace.”

_{A girl collects belongings at the site of an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the central Gaza Strip}