GAZA: Palestinian group Hamas on Thursday said it was examining a new deal proposed by a US envoy, as rescuers said at least 67 people were killed in Zionist attacks across the Gaza Strip. Negotiations on a ceasefire to end 18 months of devastating war have yet to yield a breakthrough since the Zionist entity resumed operations in the war-ravaged territory in March after a brief truce. But US envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism on Wednesday, saying he expected to propose a plan soon. Hamas later said it had “received Witkoff’s new proposal from the mediators and is currently studying it responsibly”. The White House said Thursday the Zionist entity had accepted US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire, while discussions were “continuing” with Hamas.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump and Witkoff “submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that (the Zionist entity) backed and supported. (The Zionist entity) signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas.”

The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite aid finally beginning to trickle back into the territory after a more than two-month blockade by the Zionist entity.

Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people. The Zionist military has also recently stepped up its offensive in the territory in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas. Gaza civil defense official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir told AFP 23 people were killed in a strike on home in Al-Bureij. “Two people were killed and several injured by (Zionist) forces’ gunfire this morning near the American aid center in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip,” he added.

The center, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new system for distributing aid that the Zionist entity says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union. “What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us,” said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF center on Thursday. “We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.”

In a telephone call Thursday with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the Zionist entity’s “systematic starvation tactics have crossed all moral and legal boundaries”. On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza, with the Zionist entity and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis.

AFP footage showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into the WFP facility in Deir al-Balah and taking bags of emergency food supplies as gunshots rang out. “Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution,” the UN agency said in a statement.

Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza said Zionist forces were carrying out a forced evacuation of its premises on Thursday. “(Zionist) occupation forces are currently carrying out a forced evacuation of patients and medical staff from inside Al-Awda Hospital in Tel al-Zaatar – the only hospital that was still operating in the northern Gaza Strip,” the hospital said in a statement. The hospital earlier in the day said there were “still 97 people inside the hospital, including 13 patients and injured individuals, and 84 medical staff members.”

The health ministry in Gaza said the Zionist entity had “demanded the evacuation of Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza governorate, effectively forcing it out of service.” The UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Thursday said efforts were “ongoing to evacuate patients and medical staff” from the hospital. “The facility is currently overwhelmed with injuries and critically low on supplies,” it said in a statement.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory. Zionist ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that aid was entering Gaza by truck — under limited authorization by the Zionist entity at the Kerem Shalom crossing — and accused the UN of “trying to block” GHF’s work through “threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate”.

The UN has said it is doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance allowed by Zionist authorities. The world body said 47 people were wounded Tuesday when crowds of Palestinians rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death. GHF, however, disputed that anyone had died or been injured, saying in a statement that there had been “several inaccuracies” circulating about its operations, adding “there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail”.

But 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, who visited a GHF centre Thursday, said the situation there was “so chaotic”. “The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads, but the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding,” he told AFP. On Thursday, the military said an “employee of a contracting company that carries out engineering work” was killed in northern Gaza. – Agencies