Israel-Gaza war live: Hamas says it has sent mediators new ideas on halting Israel war

Hamas political official Basem Naim said on Wednesday that the Palestinian militant group had responded to the most recent ceasefire proposal submitted to the mediators.

Mr Naim said Hamas had not outright rejected or accepted a deal, which was recently amended by the US, but “responded with some ideas to bridge the gap” between the two sides.

He declined to say what amendments Hamas had proposed.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence service said it received Hamas’s response to the ceasefire and was examining it.

The latest proposal has new language the US proposed to other intermediaries Egypt and Qatar last week, according to a senior Biden administration official.

The new language addresses negotiations that are to start between Israel and Hamas during the first phase of a three-phase deal that US President Joe Biden laid out nearly a month ago.

The first phase calls for a “full and complete ceasefire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded.

In exchange, Israel would release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

The proposal calls for the parties to negotiate the terms of the second phase during the 42 days of phase one.

Under the current proposal, Hamas could release all of the remaining men, both civilians and soldiers, during that phase. In return, Israel could free an agreed-upon number of Palestinian detainees.

The releases would not occur until “sustainable calm” takes effect and all Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.

- AP

The US military's Central Command said on Wednesday its forces successfully destroyed two radar sites in Houthi controlled areas of Yemen and two uncrewed surface vessels in the Red sea in the past 24 hours.

- Reuters

Israel’s military said masked Israeli settlers attacked its troops who were trying to evacuate an illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Settlers hurled an explosive at a vehicle belonging to the military agency in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, leaving its dashboard cracked, the army said.

The military’s chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said the episode was “a severe, violent incident, that must be denounced and condemned", and called for the “rioters” to face legal repercussions.

Israeli media reported that the settlers had clashed with Israeli troops late into the night on Tuesday, burning tyres and hurling stones at the officers.

The military and border police were trying to evacuate the Oz Zion outpost in the northern West Bank, which was established illegally in 2021.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns.

They are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship.

- AP

Israeli settlers returned to the Palestinian village of Umm Al Khair in the southern West Bank on Wednesday, cutting the village’s water pipes and leaving about 200 Palestinians without access to water.

It was the fourth settler assault on the village — some violent — in the past week and comes days after a quarter of the village was left homeless when Israeli authorities demolished their homes.

One video from a local resident showed a group of about five settlers tampering with the village’s main pipe, with the water spilling on to the ground.

In another video, two Israeli soldiers look on as the settlers gather around the pipe.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Since Wednesday, international and Israeli activists have flocked to the village to try to protect the Palestinians there, but it has not stopped near-daily settler attacks.

A confrontation on Monday turned violent. Settlers wielding tear gas and sticks injured six Palestinians, who were sent to hospital, residents said.

- AP

The UN on Wednesday denounced reports of "unacceptable" abuse and even torture of Palestinian detainees, in particular since Hamas's October 7 attack inside Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

The UN, which has long raised concerns about conditions for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, warned that the situation appeared to have worsened since the war began and demanded an investigation.

Recently, Israel's military admitted its troops had tied a wounded Palestinian to a military vehicle during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said it was "sickening to see such totally unacceptable treatment".

"There must be a transparent and independent investigation to know what happened and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," Mr Turk told a news conference in Geneva.

Mr Turk's spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the UN rights office had "been receiving very worrying, very distressing reports of how Palestinian detainees are being treated by Israeli forces since October 7".

Those reports included "people being held incommunicado ... torture, mistreatment, handcuffing, deprivation of food, of water, of medication", she said, while also noting allegations of sexual abuse of detainees.

Ms Shamdasani said the rights office had raised this issue directly with Israeli authorities and demanded "a transparent investigation into these allegations", but had yet to receive a formal response.

- AFP

Israel and the UN are in negotiations to use Elon Musk's Starlink communications system in the Gaza Strip, according to a report from Axios.

If an agreement is reached, Starlink would be used to provide protection for humanitarian workers and streamline aid distribution, Andrea Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Palestine, said on Wednesday.

“Communication equipment has been a long-standing request of the humanitarian community as a whole,” Mr Domenico said in New York.

“Every time there is a military operation, we lose completely communication with our teams … the internet and connectivity is fundamental to the way we operate and function.”

UN aid distribution in Gaza has largely been suspended because of safety concerns and obstruction by Israel.

Humanitarian agencies have had difficulty moving aid to areas farther into Gaza where aid is most needed because convoys have come under attack from Israeli warplanes and Palestinian gunmen.

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Dozens of rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, Israel's Channel 12 broadcaster reported.

There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli Defence Ministry said air raid sirens sounded in several parts of northern Israel.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli strike killed one of Hezbollah's top commanders in Lebanon.

-Reuters

Israeli forces bombed and battled Hamas in Gaza city on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of Palestinians sought a safe haven after the army issued an evacuation order for much of the territory's south.

Israeli aircraft flew above the city's Shujaiya district as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a US media report saying his generals were calling for a Gaza truce even with Hamas undefeated, stressing on Tuesday that "this will not happen".

Military chief Herzi Halevi, meanwhile, said Israel is engaged in "a long campaign" to destroy Hamas over the October 7 attack and to bring home the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

Israel's air force struck "over 50 terror infrastructure sites" across Gaza in 24 hours, while troops "eliminated terrorists", located tunnels and found weapons including AK-47 assault rifles, the military said.

-AFP

Hezbollah has confirmed commander Mohammad Nimah Nasser was killed in an Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese town of Al Haoush, near Tyre, on Wednesday.

Israeli army radio said the commander was in charge of the “Aziz” unit, responsible for operations in south Lebanon’s western sector.

Mr Nasser is only the third person to be officially acknowledged as a commander by Hezbollah – the first being Wissam Al Tawil, a senior commander in the elite Radwan Force, and Lebanon regional commander Sami Abdullah.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike, saying Mr Nasser's unit "is responsible for firing from south-western Lebanon at Israeli territory".

It said Mr Nasser "took his position in 2016 and led the firing of rockets and anti-tank missiles from south-western Lebanon toward Israeli civilians, communities, and security forces".

Data from Peace Now indicates that the almost 13-square-kilometre appropriation in the Jordan Valley is the largest land seizure since the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The land seizure, which was approved late last month but publicised only on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 sq km of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 sq km in February.

That makes 2024 by far the biggest year for Israeli land seizures in the occupied territory, Peace Now said.

Yoni Mizrachi, head of settlement tracking at Peace Now, described it as part of a strategy to establish a buffer zone between Jordan and Palestinian lands and choke off the practical possibility of a Palestinian state. The aim, he believes, is to push Palestinians into isolated islands surrounded by Israeli land.

“They [the Israelis] definitely see this area as a strategic area, as the first and one of the easiest ways to begin annexation,” he said.

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Some Israeli hostages have tried to commit suicide after they were treated the same way Israel treated Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement's armed wing, Al Quds Brigades, said on Wednesday.

"We will keep treating Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners," Al Quds Brigades spokesman Abu Hamza said in a post on Telegram.

A full-scale war between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel could cause power cuts for days or even months in both countries, causing massive economic damage and putting services including water supplies and communications at risk, experts tell The National.

Leaders on both sides, including Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, have threatened to destroy energy infrastructure if war breaks out.

This could affect essential services such as hospitals, telecoms, water supply and sanitation networks, as well as farming.

For decades, countries have used air power in war to destroy civilian energy infrastructure, despite this being prohibited in international law if it has no direct military use.

Israel has a record of bombing power infrastructure in both Gaza and Lebanon.

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Authorities in Gaza on Wednesday said Israel’s order to evacuate the European Hospital and its surrounding area is a “historic crime” against the Palestinian people.

The hospital in Khan Younis is one of the enclave’s last standing medical complexes and is inside the evacuation zone ordered by Israel on Monday.

Doctors at the hospital say some patients, including those in intensive care and babies in incubators, have been transferred elsewhere “in fear of bloodshed”.

Dr Hossam Shahwan said those seeking safety began fleeing in panic after the Israeli warning.

“Patients were also evacuated by ambulance to Nasser Medical Hospital along with some medical staff and nurses, fearing attacks by the Israeli army,” Dr Shahwan told The National.

Doctors and nurses made the decision to leave after seeing the violence and brutality at the Al Shifa and Nasser hospitals, he said.

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An abandoned tanker that was drifting off Yemen's coast last month has disappeared and is believed to have sunk, navy and security sources said.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched more than 70 attacks on merchant ships since October in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

But maritime security sources said last week the abandoned tanker, the Lavant, was unlikely to have been hit by the Houthis. According to two sources, it had reported an engine failure and was taking on water.

Russian shipping group Sovcomflot said last week that one of its vessels, responding to a distress signal, had rescued the crew off the southern Yemeni coast on June 23 after the sailors had abandoned ship in a life raft.

-Reuters

One person was killed and another seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to Israel's emergency services.

Paramedics performed CPR on a man in his 20s, who was attacked at a mall in Karmiel, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said on X.

The suspect, who was shot dead by one of the victims of the attack, was a Palestinian citizen of Israel from the northern town of Nahef, Israeli police said.

An Israeli police representative did not rule out the possibility that more attackers were in the area.

Twenty-one Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to The Times of Israel, as tension remains high during the Gaza War, which has so far killed more than 37,900 people in the strip.

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