The Albany Gazette - Gaza rescuers say Israeli fire kills 10 near aid site as ceasefire push stalls

"At least 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others... were wounded due to gunfire from Israeli vehicles towards thousands of citizens" approaching the US aid site west of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The casualties were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, he said.

Israel has faced mounting international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in war-ravaged Gaza, where the United Nations has warned the entire population faces famine.

Nearly 20 months into the war, negotiations remain deadlocked. A brief truce collapsed in March, and Israel has since intensified operations to destroy Hamas.

In the Gaza Strip, aid is only trickling in after Israel partially lifted a more than two-month total blockade, and the United Nations reported looting of its trucks and warehouses last month.

- 'Death traps, not aid points' -

The UN's World Food Programme has called on Israel "to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster", saying desperation was "contributing to rising insecurity".

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is administered by contracted US security with support from Israeli troops, began distributing food in the Gaza Strip on May 26.

The United Nations and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the organisation, saying it violated basic humanitarian principles, and appeared crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Officially a private effort, GHF said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday.

In a statement on Sunday, Hamas accused Israeli forces operating in Rafah of committing "a new massacre against hungry civilians who had gathered at the so-called 'humanitarian aid' distribution sites", calling them "mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points".

- Truce talks -

The Palestinian militant group said Saturday that it had responded positively to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, but Washington's main negotiator criticised Hamas's reply as "totally unacceptable".

Hamas said it had emphasised the need for a permanent ceasefire -- long a sticking point for Israel.

And a source within the Palestinian group's political bureau added that it had also pushed for a "full Israeli withdrawal" from the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, Israel had warned Hamas to either accept the deal and free the hostages held in Gaza "or be annihilated".

US envoy Steve Witkoff called Hamas's response to its truce offer on Saturday "totally unacceptable", and urged it to "accept the framework proposal we put forward".

"That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have... substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire," he added in a post on X.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 4,117 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,381, mostly civilians.

Hamas's attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

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(Y.Harris--TAG)