Hamas reacts to ceasefire proposal as Israel denies accusations of ‘man-made mass starvation’

Hamas has outlined its demands after an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, as Israel denied accusations of “man-made mass starvation” in Gaza.

Hamas confirmed that it has responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, after more than two weeks of indirect talks in Qatar have failed to yield a truce.

“Hamas has just submitted its response and that of the Palestinian factions to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement on Telegram.

The response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war, according to a Palestinian source familiar with ongoing talks in Doha.

This picture taken from a position at Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during an Israeli strike on the besieged Palestinian territory. Picture: AFP

Negotiators from both sides have been holding indirect talks in Doha with mediators in an attempt to reach an agreement on a truce deal that would see the release of Israeli hostages.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

But the talks have dragged on for more than two weeks without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.

For Israel, dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer accused Hamas of obstructing talks.

“Israel has agreed to the Qatari proposal and the updated (US special envoy Steve) Witkoff proposal, it is Hamas that is refusing,” Mencer told reporters, adding that Israel’s negotiating team was still in Doha and talks were ongoing.

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‘MAN-MADE MASS STARVATION’: ISRAEL HITS BACK

Israel has hit back at growing international criticism that it was behind chronic food shortages in Gaza, instead accusing Hamas of deliberately creating a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

More than 100 aid and human rights groups said earlier Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in the Gaza Strip, while France warned of a growing “risk of famine” caused by “the blockade imposed by Israel”.

The head of the World Health Organisation also weighed in, saying that a “large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving”.

People make their way along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia after receiving humanitarian aid from an aid distribution point in the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

“I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation — and it’s man-made,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

But an Israeli government spokesman, David Mencer, said there was “no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas.” President Isaac Herzog, visiting troops in Gaza, maintained that Israel was acting “according to international law”, while Hamas was “trying to sabotage” aid distribution in a bid to obstruct the Israeli military campaign that began more than 21 months ago.

It comes as Tunisian President Kais Saied presented his US counterpart Donald Trump’s senior Africa adviser with photographs of starving children in Gaza, official video of their meeting showed.

Israeli activists denouncing the ongoing food shortage and forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Saied told US envoy Massad Boulos, who is also the father-in-law of Mr Trump’s daughter Tiffany, that “it is time for all of humanity to wake up and put an end to these crimes against the Palestinian people”.

“I believe you know these images well,” Saied was seen telling the envoy as he showed a photograph of what he described as “a child crying, eating sand in occupied Palestine”.

Saied showed Boulos several more images, saying that Palestinians in Gaza were subjected to crimes against humanity.

ISRAELI LEADERS DISCUSS TRUMP’S GAZA ‘RIVIERA’ PLAN

Some Israeli far-right leaders have discussed the possibility of redeveloping the Gaza Strip into a tourist-friendly “riviera” during a public meeting held on Tuesday.

The meeting, titled “The Riviera in Gaza: From Vision to Reality”, was held in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, under the auspices of some of its most hardline members.

It comes US President Donald Trump floated a proposal in February to turn the war-ravaged territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after moving out its Palestinian residents and putting it under American control.

The idea drew swift condemnation from across the Arab world, and from Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the “Nakba”, or catastrophe - the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.

The idea to redevelop the devastated Gaza Strip into a riviera, first floated by Donald Trump, drew widespread condemnation. Picture: AP

Participants in Tuesday’s meeting such as finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and activist Daniella Weiss discussed a “master plan” drafted by Weiss’s organisation to re-establish a permanent Jewish presence in Gaza.

The detailed plan foresees the construction of housing for 1.2 million new Jewish residents, and the development of industrial and agricultural zones, as well as tourism complexes on the coast.

Eight Israeli settlements located in various parts of the Gaza Strip were dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel’s unilateral decision to “disengage” from Gaza following years of violence between settlers, Palestinian armed groups and the army.

For the past two decades, a small but vocal section of Israeli society has urged the resettlement of the Strip.

‘HELL ON EARTH’: GAZA HORROR ESCALATES

The UN has described the “horror” facing Palestinians in Gaza as unprecedented in recent years, with doctors fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, adding that the region is “hell on earth”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the Israel-Gaza war was “with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times”.

“Devastation is being layered upon devastation,” he said in a speech in Geneva.

The UN warned 1000 people are estimated to have been killed seeking food.

Meanwhile the head of Gaza’s largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, while Israel pressed a devastating assault.

Head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (Unrwa) said on Tuesday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers were fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, Reuters reported.

“Over 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating,” UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP.

“As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations’ aid convoys.”

AUSTRALIA AMONG 25 COUNTRIES CALLING FOR END TO GAZA WAR

It comes amid calls from Australia and more than two dozen Western countries for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, saying the suffering in the region had “reached new depths”.

After more than 21 months of fighting which have triggered catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people and following Israel’s military expanding its operations into the central city of Deir el-Balah, Israeli allies Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the EU, said in a joint statement that the war “must end now”.

“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire, the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants and the free flow of much-needed aid.

This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing during Israeli strikes in the Palestinian territory. Picture: AFP

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said it is “disappointing” that the Albanese government has again signed a statement “attacking Israel”.

“It is disappointing that once again the Albanese government is supporting a statement attacking Israel,” Senator Cash said in a statement on X.

“It is important that aid flows into Gaza. Proper quantities of food and other aid must be provided to the people of Gaza. However, the right system must be in place so that it can be distributed without Hamas intervening in the process.”

Originally published as Hamas reacts to ceasefire proposal as Israel denies accusations of ‘man-made mass starvation’