In response, Hamas's armed wing said it would allow the agency access to the hostages but only if "humanitarian corridors" for food and aid were opened "across all areas of the Gaza Strip".

US envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday met the anguished families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha

Within sight of Gaza, the devastated Palestinian enclave ravaged by nearly 22 months of war, hundreds of Israeli settlers marched Wednesday to stake their claim to the battered territory.

Speaking in Scotland after meeting Britain's leader, Trump contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had earlier dismissed fears of famine in Gaza as Hamas propaganda.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation.

The US president argued that the Palestinian militant group was not ready to hand over the remaining captives in Gaza because "they know what happens after you get the final hostages".

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli military operations killed at least 23 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, with another five killed in an overnight air strike.

"The negative statements of the US envoy Witkoff run completely counter to the context in which the last negotiations were held, and he is perfectly aware of this, but they come to serve the Israeli position," said Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim.

Hamas confirmed on Thursday 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.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May

Hussein al-Sheikh, vice-president of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), on Tuesday said he met the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in the occupied West Bank.

UN has said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 in the vicinity of sites run by US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which replaced UN agencies.

The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Friday accused Israel of blocking a deal in talks for a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

The indirect negotiations in Qatar appear deadlocked after both sides blamed the other for blocking a deal for the release of hostages and a 60-day ceasefire after 21 months of fighting.

Israel's military blamed it on a "technical error" when targeting a militant in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, adding "the munition fell dozens of meters from the target".

On the ground, civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit. Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat...

Netanyahu said the Islamist militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian territory, warning that failure to reach a deal on Israel's terms would lead to further conflict.

The group's statement came after four days of indirect talks brokered by Qatar and as the United States signalled its belief that agreement for a 60-day truce would be struck before the end of the week.

Speaking before boarding Israel's state jet bound for Washington, Netanyahu said: "We are working to achieve this deal that we have discussed, under the conditions that we have agreed to."

But Netanyahu, who is due to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, said the Palestinian group's proposals for changes to a draft US-backed ceasefire deal were "unacceptable".

"The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place" the US-backed truce proposal, the militant group said in a statement.

Sinjil, Palestinian Territories - Dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians clashed Friday in the occupied West Bank village of Sinjil, where a march against recent settler attacks on nearby farmland was due to take place. AFP journalists saw local residents and activists begin their march before locals reported that settlers...

Netanyahu has come under strong pressure to get the hostages back after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas that could lead to their release.

The Israeli leader had yet to comment on US President Donald Trump's claim that Israel had backed a plan for a 60-day truce in its offensive against Hamas in the war-ravaged territory.

It said it sought "to reach an agreement that guarantees ending the aggression, achieving the withdrawal (of Israel from Gaza) and urgently aiding our people in the Gaza Strip".

The intensified operations came after days of mounting calls for a ceasefire, with US President Donald Trump -- whom Netanyahu is scheduled to meet next week -- among those urging Israel to strike a new deal to halt the war and bring home the hostages still held in Gaza.

The swift resolution of Israel's 12-day war with Iran has revived hopes for a halt to the fighting in Gaza, where more than 20 months of combat have created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million.

His comments lifted hope for a new ceasefire in the devastating conflict in the Palestinian territory, after US President Donald Trump said he hoped a truce could be sealed within days.

US President Donald Trump voiced optimism on Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza saying an agreement involving Israel and Hamas could come as early as next week.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday said Gaza was in a "catastrophic situation of genocide" and urged the European Union to immediately suspend its cooperation deal with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday insisted gains in the conflict against Iran would help with the country's war footing in Gaza and bringing the hostages home but said "more time" was needed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he ordered negotiators to "advance" talks on releasing hostages held in Gaza, after sensing an opportunity amid Israel's unprecedented attack on arch-foe Iran.

Israel charged on Thursday that Hamas was "weaponising suffering in Gaza" after a US and Israeli-backed charity accused the Palestinian militant group of killing eight of its aid workers in the territory.

Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat have been taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation, Israel said Tuesday, after their vessel was intercepted by naval forces.

Cairo, Egypt - An aid ship with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, is nearing Gaza, having reached the Egyptian coast, organisers said Saturday. The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies "to break Israel's blockade...

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 13 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting incident near a US-backed aid distribution centre in the territory's south.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the militant group Hamas, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it.

News of the soldiers' deaths came as Gaza's civil defence agency reported 38 killed Friday in Israeli attacks across the territory, where Palestinians observed the Eid al-Adha holiday under the shadow of war for a second consecutive year.

"This is a final and urgent warning ahead of an impending strike," army spokesman Avichay Adraee said. The army "will strike all areas from which rockets are launched."

Negotiator Khalil al-Hayya made the declaration in a speech marking the start of Eid al-Adha festivities, typically a joyous date on the Muslim calendar, but one many Gazans say they will not be able to celebrate this year amid crushing shortages.

The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from "Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the deaths of Palestinians seeking food aid as "unacceptable", and the world body's rights chief condemned attacks on civilians as "a war crime" following a similar shooting near the same site on Sunday.

Cries of grief echoed across southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital Monday as dozens came to mourn Hossam Wafi, after the father of six was killed while attempting to get supplies to feed his family.

Israel has faced growing condemnation over the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned the entire population faces the risk of famine after no aid was allowed to enter for more than two months.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that abandoning war-torn Gaza to its fate and giving Israel a "free pass" would kill the West's credibility with the world.

Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March, ending a six-week truce.

Hamas said Monday it had accepted a new ceasefire proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff, presented by mediators, but a spokesman for Witkoff later denied the Palestinian group had accepted.

The outline of the new potential deal was revealed as Israel ramped up its offensive in the Palestinian territory, and follows previous rounds of talks that have failed to reach a breakthrough.

Madrid will host 20 countries as well as international organizations with the aim of "stopping this war, which no longer has any goal", Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told France Info radio. Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza "massively, unimpeded, neutrally, so that it is not Israel who decides who...