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Hamas accepts Gaza cease-fire; Israel says it will continue talks but presses on with Rafah attacks

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  • Can we trust the Gaza death toll?

    STORY: Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities.:: October 7, 2023:: Ashkelon, IsraelThe war began on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. :: October 31, 2023:: Beit Guvrin, IsraelThey killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 hostages into Gaza, Israel says. :: How credible is the official toll?So how do Gaza health authorities count the Palestinian dead, and is that toll reliable? :: October 25, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden cast doubt on Gaza's casualty figures in the first weeks of the war.BIDEN: "I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.":: WHOBut the United Nations regularly cites them and the World Health Organization has voiced its full confidence.:: FilePre-war Gaza had robust population statistics and health information systems, public health experts say. :: October 9, 2023London-based non-profit Airwars compiled a list of Gaza deaths in the first weeks of the war using open-source monitoring and cross-checked it with the Health Ministry toll.In a July study, it found a correlation of at least 75%.Airwars head of investigations, Joe Dyke:"That tells you that it's, at least at the beginning of the war, that the Ministry of Health process was rigorous and reliable.":: How do they count the dead?At first, Gaza health authorities calculated death tolls by counting bodies that arrived in hospitals and recorded names and identity numbers for most of them.But fewer hospitals and morgues now operate.From early May, unidentified Gazans were included, and they now account for nearly a third of the toll.Deaths reported online by family members - who have to input data such as identity numbers - are also now added.JOE DYKE: "We would say that beyond that initial period, definitely the information quality coming out of Gaza has declined, partly because there's been a number of Internet blackouts, partly because a large number of people who were reporting or working at the beginning of the war have either left or been killed or injured.":: Are all the dead counted? As many as 10,000 people were missing under the rubble as of May, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.If indirect deaths, caused by factors like disease were included, the death toll could be more than 186,000, according to a letter from three academics in The Lancet medical journal in early July.The U.N. also believes the true death toll to be higher than the official one. :: Does Hamas control the figures? Hamas has run Gaza since 2007.But the enclave's Health Ministry also answers to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.:: June 25, 2024:: Gaza City, GazaAnd the extent of Hamas control in Gaza now is difficult to assess because Israeli forces occupy most of the Gaza Strip and fighting continues.Israeli officials have cast doubt on the figures because of Hamas' control over government. But at other times, Israel's military has credited the toll with being broadly reliable. Gaza Health Ministry figures do not differentiate between civilians and Hamas combatants, who do not wear uniform or carry special ID.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May the Gazan official toll included 14,000 Hamas fighters.Hamas says Israel exaggerates its losses but has not said how many of its fighters have been killed. Airwars found at least "some militants" were included in the Health Ministry's list.

  • Exclusive-Israel seeks changes to Gaza truce plan, complicating talks, sources say

    WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources. Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters. Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.

  • Harris pushes Netanyahu to ease suffering in Gaza: 'I will not be silent'

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden. "It is time for this war to end," Harris said in a televised statement after she held face-to-face talks with Netanyahu. Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the election race on Sunday, did not mince words about the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza after nine months of war between Israel and Hamas militants.

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  • Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police

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  • Harris strikes tougher tone on Gaza ceasefire deal

    STORY: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said she pressured Israel's leader to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden:"The first phase of the deal would bring about a full ceasefire, including a withdrawal of the Israeli military from population centers in Gaza. In the second phase, the Israeli military would withdraw from Gaza entirely. And it will lead to a permanent end to the hostilities. It is time for this war to end."It was part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington D.C. - he'd earlier addressed lawmakers in Congress and met with the U.S. President.A ceasefire has been the subject of negotiations for months. U.S. officials believe the parties are closer than ever before to a deal for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for Hamas releasing some hostages.A White House readout said Biden met with Netanyahu earlier and told him that he needed to close gaps to reach a ceasefire and remove obstacles in the flow of aid.While Harris, who is now the likely Democratic presidential nominee, mostly echoed Biden in firmly backing Israel's right to defend itself but she made clear on Thursday that she was losing patience with Israel's military approach."I also expressed with the Prime Minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent."Palestinian health authorities say Israel's retaliatory attack killed more than 39,000 people in the Gaza Strip.The conflict began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.The Gaza conflict has splintered the Democratic Party. Protesters, pouring fake blood near the White House ahead of Biden's meeting with Netanyahu, were just some of many over the months who had appeared at Biden events, angered at U.S. weapons shipments to Israel.Meanwhile, Netanyahu will meet Harris' Republican rival, Donald Trump, on Friday at Mar-a-Lago.

  • How Biden’s Gaza pier project unraveled

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