Trump hopeful for Gaza ceasefire, possibly ‘next week’

WASHINGTON, JUN 28 (AFP/APP/DNA):US President Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centers in the territory.

Asked by reporters how close a ceasefire was between Israel and Hamas, Trump said: “We think within the next week, we’re going to get a ceasefire.”

The United States brokered a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in the waning days of former president Joe Biden’s administration, with support from Trump’s incoming team.

Israel broke the ceasefire in March, launching new devastating attacks on Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel also stopped all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months, drawing warnings of famine.

Israel has since allowed a resumption of food through the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which involves US security contractors with Israeli troops at the periphery.

United Nations officials on Friday said the GHF system was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was “aligning itself with Hamas.”

Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians at distribution centers over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants.

The Israeli military has denied targeting people and GHF has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites.

But following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid.

“The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” with people “shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA).

“This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA,” he wrote on X.

The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.

The country’s civil defense agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid.

“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“The search for food must never be a death sentence.”

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.”

– Civil defense says 80 killed –

Gaza’s civil defense agency told AFP 80 Palestinians had been killed on Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory, including 10 who were waiting for aid.

The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by GHF, and one more in a separate incident in the center of the territory, where the army denied shooting “at all.”

Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.

Elsewhere, eight people were killed “after an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons” in northern Gaza.