Hamas officer says Gaza mediators are intensifying efforts of termination

A senior Hamas official told the BBC that mediators had intensified their efforts to join a new deal to end the fire and hostages in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain delayed.

The comments came when US President Donald Trump said great progress was being made, as Israel and Iran had ended their 12-day war on Tuesday and that his dust Steve Vikof believes that the agreement between Israel and Hamas is “very close”.

Israeli attacks in Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 45 Palestinians, including some seeking help, said Hamas Health Ministry.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced that seven soldiers had been killed in an attack on a bomb on Tuesday, stated by Hamas.

“I think a lot of progress is being made in Gaza. I think because of this attack we have made,” President Trump told Reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, citing US air strikes for Iranian nuclear facilities held over the weekend against the conflict between Israel and Iran.

“I think we will have some very good news. I spoke to Steve Witcof … (s) he told me that Gaza was very close,” he added.

Shortly after Trump spoke, Hamas's senior official told the BBC that mediators were “engaged in intensive contacts aimed at reaching an agreement to end the fire.”

However, he added that the group “had not received a new proposal so far”.

An Israeli employee also told Haaretz newspaper that there is no progress in negotiations and that the major disagreements remain unresolved.

The US, Qatar and Egypt efforts to mediate a deal that stood in late May when Vitcof said Hamas had sought “completely unacceptable” changes to the US proposal, supported by Israel for a 60-day truce, during which half of the living Israeli hostages and half of the dead would be released.

Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18, collapsing a two -month end of fire. It says he wants to put pressure on Hamas to release his hostages. Fifty are still in gas, at least 20 of which are thought to be alive.

Israel also imposed a total blockade of humanitarian aid supplies in Gaza in early March, which partially relieved 11 weeks after the pressure of US allies and warnings by global experts that half a million people are starving.

At the same time, Israel and the United States supported the creation of a new mechanism for distribution of assistance governed by the Humanitarian Gaza Foundation (GHF), which aims to circumvent the UN as a major supplier to help the Palestinians. They said that the GHF system would prevent the help from being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies.

GHF, which uses American private security contractors, says it has distributed food packages containing more than 44 million meals as it started operating on May 26, with over 2.4 million in three sites on Wednesday.

However, the UN and other help groups refused to cooperate with GHF, accusing him of collaboration with Israel's goals in a way that violates the basic humanitarian principles.

They have also expressed concern in almost daily reports that the Palestinians were killed near the groups of the group that are inside the Israeli military zones.

According to the Health Ministry of Gaza, at least 549 people were killed and 4,000 wounded while trying to collect help as GHF began to distribute help on May 26th.

On Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the Hamas Civil Protection Agency said six people had been killed when the Israeli forces opened fire on crowds waiting near one of the GHF Food Center in Central Gaza.

The other three were killed near a GHF place in the southern city of Rafa, he added.

However, Israeli military said “was not familiar with casualties in these areas,” while GHF said reports on such incidents near its sites were incorrect.

In the city of Gaza, burials were held for some of the 33 people, whom the health ministry said they had been killed in the previous day while waiting for help.

“I say and repeat a million times,” Abu Mohammed told the Reuters Agency. “These help points are not help points, these are death points.”

UNICEF spokesman James Elder, who has just visited Gaza, said: “While the population is giving up food, people are offered this deadly choice and unfortunately, as it is in the battle area, it cannot be improved.”

The civil defense spokesman also said that six more people, including a child, were killed in an air strike at a house early Wednesday at Nuseirat refugee camp in central gas.

Five others were killed when homes in the nearby city of Deir Al Balah, he said.

More than 860 Palestinians were reported by the Israeli forces in Gaza during the Israeli-Iranian conflict that began when Israel launched an air campaign aimed at Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Iran shot a barrages of missiles to Israel in response.

The people in Gaza were divided into their estimates of what the cessation of fire means for the territory.

Some looked at Iran's weakening, a key regional supporter of Hamas, as a potentially positive step towards achieving a truck in gas, as this may force the group to ease his demands.

Others, however, feared that the end of the conflict would allow Israel to redirect its military focus back to gas and strengthen its air and ground operations.

A man in Khan Enisnus, Nader Ramadan, told the BBC that he was feeling like “everything got worse” in gas during the conflict.

“(Israel) The bombing intensified, the damage increased and the invasion expanded to certain areas … We only felt the destruction,” he said.

Adel Abu the order said the most difficult is the lack of access to help. He said the items are being broken down and sold for high prices, and the civilians have fallen under Israeli fire when trying to get food.

“What should we do?” he asked. “We feel the shooting and the murder all the time.”

In Israel, the military announced that seven of his soldiers were killed in a battle in South Gaza on Tuesday – the most deadly such incident after the collapse of the ceasefire.

Brig-Gendy Dephin spokesman said the explosive device had been attached to an armored vehicle in the Khan Einnis area and that the explosion caused the vehicle to start. Helicopters and rescue force made several unsuccessful attempts to save them, he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “difficult day for the people of Israel”.

Death renewed the pressure on Netanyahu to agree to the cessation of the fire, with the leader of an ultra -Orthodox Jewish party in his ruling coalition saying that Israel should end the war and bring all hostages to home.

“I don't understand what are we fighting for and what purpose … When soldiers kill themselves all the time?” Moshe Gafni of Judaism of the United Torah told the Israeli parliament.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 56 157 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry in the territory.

Additional reporting from Alice Kudi in Jerusalem