GAZA: At least 60 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours as Israeli forces intensified airstrikes on Gaza City and northern Gaza.
This brings the death toll in the besieged Palestinian enclave since 7 October 2023 to 54,381, including 4,117 killed since Israel broke the ceasefire on 18 March.
More than 124,054 Palestinians have been injured overall. At least 10,000 people are still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.
In the latest attacks, six Palestinians, including four women, were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a tent sheltering displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis city in southern Gaza, medical sources reported.
About 60 homes, containing dozens of residential apartments and hundreds of Palestinian families, have been bombed in less than 48 hours in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.
Hamas responds to US peace proposal
Hamas announced on Saturday that it had responded to a ceasefire proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff, indicating that the deal includes the release of 10 living hostages from Gaza.
“As part of this agreement, 10 living prisoners of the occupation held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of 18 bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,” it added.
US President Donald Trump had said Friday that the parties were “very close to an agreement.”
Humanitarian aid distribution not working in Gaza
Lindsey Hutchison of Plan International stated that humanitarian organizations and the UN had warned against the Israeli government’s current aid distribution system in Gaza, describing it as completely ineffective so far.
“We saw chaos and despair at the distribution site, which is frankly masquerading as a humanitarian aid scheme. That’s not what this is,” she said.
“This week, we have seen continual destruction of the Gaza Strip and the starvation of the population because the Israeli blockade remains,” Hutchison stressed.
She said the current scheme in place is a “militarisation of humanitarian aid”, adding it’s not working.
“The Israeli scheme to distribute limited supplies has been condemned by Plan [International] as well as the UN and others in the humanitarian sector as violating the core humanitarian principles that we all are obligated to abide by,” she said.
Gaza Genocide, a test of our collective conscience: Malaysian PM
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim described the ongoing genocide in Gaza as a “test of our collective conscience” that demands action.
Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue, a key annual defence and security forum held in Singapore, Anwar highlighted the alarming rise in global armed conflicts, noting that the number of such conflicts is now at its highest since World War II, citing ongoing crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar and Sudan.
“Genocide in Gaza is a test of our collective conscience, the scale of devastation, open defiance of humanitarian norms, and the paralysis of institutions meant to uphold them, demand more than sympathy; they demand consistency and actions,” he said.
