What Gives Any People The Right Today, to Destroy Others? We See it with Russia and Israel.

What gives any army the right to do this to any region to any people? Beccause they feel there are bad people among them? Because Israel had been given the right? With this behavior we can understand history better because these things happened in the past but Israel is brought the past to the present and forefront to behave like lawless killers. Let's not hide behind their armed forces because their armed forces are made up of regular citizens. But even if it was a volunteer army the people give the power to the army to do what it does. The criminals maybe n the way the people compose their government?
Adamfoxie

 

By Aaron Boxerman and Patrick Kingsley

Reporting from Jerusalem

The New York Times

 

Mediators are seeking to urgently broker a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip to free the remaining hostages there amid Israeli threats to launch a sweeping offensive throughout the enclave.

But Israel, the United States and Hamas have sent conflicting messages in recent days about progress in truce talks that would free the hostages, even as President Trump has appeared to ramp up pressure to end the war.

The cease-fire proposal currently under discussion appeared broadly similar to previous offers, including an earlier two-month truce that collapsed in March, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Under the offer, Israel and Hamas would agree to an initial 60-day truce during which Hamas would release about 10 living hostages and half of the remaining bodies in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, according to two Israeli officials, a Western official and a fourth person briefed on the negotiations. 

During the two-month cease-fire, Israel and Hamas would negotiate the conditions for a permanent truce, the officials said. Hamas wants guarantees that those talks would lead to an end to the war — assurances Israel does not want included in the agreement, according to one of the Israeli officials and the Western official.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said he is “ready for a temporary cease-fire,” his conditions for ending the war include non-starters for Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu has demanded that the group lay down its arms and that its leadership leave Gaza and go into exile, which Hamas leaders have rebuffed.

What you should know. The Times makes a careful decision any time it uses an anonymous source. The information the source supplies must be newsworthy and give readers genuine insight.

Israel, in the meantime, has been threatening a ground offensive in Gaza, leading to rising criticism even from the country’s traditional allies like Britain, France and Germany. Israel blocked all aid to the enclave — including food, fuel and medicine — for more than two months before beginning to allow some relief to enter last week.

Mr. Netanyahu has vowed that the ground assault will decisively crush Hamas, which has fought a stubborn insurgency despite more than 18 months of war. In Israel, the families of hostages have called for an immediate cease-fire with Hamas to free their loved ones.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when a Hamas-led surprise attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and led to about 250 others being taken hostage. The subsequent Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

More than 70 people were killed on Monday, according to the Gazan health ministry.

Israel, Hamas and the United States have issued a series of contradictory comments about negotiations to end the fighting, deepening the confusion over the state of the talks.

On Monday, the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television channel said the group had accepted a cease-fire proposal from Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy. Mr. Witkoff, however, quickly rejected that claim.

“What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable,” he told the Axios news site.

Later Monday evening, Mr. Netanyahu said he hoped to announce progress in the talks soon. But he later suggested that he had been speaking figuratively and blamed Hamas for the impasse. 

On Tuesday, Basem Naim, a Hamas official, doubled down on the group’s claim. “Yes, the movement has accepted Mr. Witkoff’s proposal,” he wrote on social media, adding that Hamas was awaiting Israel’s response.

Crowds of people on a street hold a banner urging the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza.

In Tel Aviv on Saturday, protesters opposed to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demand the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Credit...Nir Elias/Reuters

Israel and Hamas have refused to negotiate directly. The result has been a long process of back-channel discussions involving Middle Eastern intelligence chiefs, U.S. government officials and various other middlemen.

Qatar, which hosts members of Hamas’s political leadership, and Egypt, which borders Gaza, have passed messages between the two sides. The United States has also been involved in the talks, first under the Biden administration, and now under Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has appeared to become increasingly impatient with the protracted war in Gaza. “Israel, we’ve been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible,” he told reporters on Sunday.

This month, the U.S. administration negotiated the release of Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with American citizenship. Bypassing Israel, the Trump administration opened its own communication channel with Hamas to negotiate his release. 

In January, Israel and Hamas agreed to a multiphase cease-fire deal that would have ultimately ended the war and freed the remaining hostages. Israel ended the truce in mid-March, when it launched a new offensive, citing a deadlock in talks over details about the next phase of the agreement.

In recent days, Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American who backed Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, has sought to broker a new cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas on behalf of Mr. Witkoff, according to two Israeli officials who both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Children walk in front of tents set up in front of a school building.

Displaced Palestinians at a school in Gaza City. Credit...Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

After Hamas said it had accepted the proposal, one of the Israeli officials said that the offer Mr. Bahbah had floated to Hamas differed significantly from earlier U.S.-backed frameworks acceptable to Israel.

The back-and-forth and lack of clarity have left both Palestinians in Gaza and the families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas alternating between hope and despair. 

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was abducted during the Hamas-led attacks, accused Mr. Netanyahu of “psychological terrorism” for his remarks on Monday evening.

“I’m fed up,” she wrote on social media. “Just bring my son back already.”