Camille Naredo

A Palestinian youth walks amidst the rubble, following overnight Israeli strikes, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 29, 2025. Eyad Baba, AFP/File

A Palestinian youth walks amidst the rubble, following overnight Israeli strikes, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 29, 2025. Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18. A ceasefire agreement that had largely halted the fighting for two months before that collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose 2023 attack triggered the war. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Article (news)

GAZA

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750870851973AFP__20250429__43UW69D__v1__Preview__PalestinianIsraelConflict.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A Palestinian youth walks amidst the rubble, following overnight Israeli strikes, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 29, 2025. Eyad Baba, AFP/File"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A Palestinian youth walks amidst the rubble, following overnight Israeli strikes, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 29, 2025. <em>Eyad Baba, AFP/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>JERUSALEM -- US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.</p><p>&quot;I think great progress is being made on Gaza,&quot; Trump told reporters ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: &quot;Gaza is very close.&quot;</p><p>He linked his optimism about imminent &quot;very good news&quot; to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas&#x27;s backer Iran to end their 12-day war.</p><p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested that Israel&#x27;s blitz of Iran&#x27;s nuclear and missile facilities, as well as its security forces linked to overseas militant groups, could help end the Gaza conflict.</p><p>Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas&#x27;s October 7, 2023 attack.</p><p>Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up.</p><p>&quot;Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,&quot; Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.</p><p>He cautioned, however, that the group had &quot;not yet received any new proposals&quot; to end the war.</p><p>The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing &quot;on the battlefield and via negotiations&quot;.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/6/22/israeli-protesters-demand-ceasefire-worry-iran-conflict-hinders-efforts-to-release-gaza-hostages-1010">WATCH: Israeli protesters demand ceasefire, worry Iran conflict hinders efforts to release Gaza hostages</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;No clear purpose&#x27; -</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gwa2GuVMki0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group&#x27;s October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.</p><p>Israel&#x27;s military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.</p><p>In one of the war&#x27;s deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza.</p><p>The latest military losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu&#x27;s coalition government.</p><p>&quot;I still don&#x27;t understand why we are fighting there... Soldiers are getting killed all the time,&quot; lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.</p><p>The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Yunis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.</p><p>The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed Gafni&#x27;s criticism of the war.</p><p>&quot;The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan,&quot; the group said in a statement.</p><p>Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.</p><p>Rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/6/17/gaza-rescuers-say-israel-army-kills-more-than-50-people-near-aid-site-0059">READ: Gaza rescuers say Israel army kills more than 50 people near aid site</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Gunfire near aid site -</strong></div><p>Gaza&#x27;s civil defense agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid.</p><p>Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli &quot;bullets and tank shells&quot; in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.</p><p>Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was &quot;not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip&quot;.</p><p>The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the &quot;weaponization of food&quot; in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organizations there.</p><p>The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.</p><p>The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred near its aid points.</p><p>The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.</p><p>In Gaza&#x27;s central Nuseirat refugee camp, a pre-dawn strike on a house killed six people including a child, while five others were killed in another strike on houses in the central city of Deir el-Balah, Bassal said.</p><p>At nearby Al-Aqsa hospital, relatives of the people killed in Deir el-Balah sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones, laid out on the floor of a small room under plastic sheets.</p><p>&quot;They took away (killed) the father, mother and brothers, only two girls survived. One of them is a baby girl aged one year and two months, and the other one is five years old,&quot; one female relative, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told AFP.</p><p>Another 18 people were killed in five separate strikes in and around Gaza City, in the Palestinian territory&#x27;s north, said Bassal.</p><div><strong>-- Adam Plowright with Danny Kemp in The Hague</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.</p>

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

Trump sees 'progress' on Gaza, raising hopes for ceasefire

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Trump sees 'progress' on Gaza, raising hopes for ceasefire

Agence France-Presse

Published June 26, 2025 02:03 AM PHT

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