Israel will send ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar a day before Trump and Netanyahu meet

DEIR AL-BALAH Gaza Strip AP U S -led ceasefire efforts in Gaza appeared to gain momentum Saturday after nearly months of war as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s office stated Israel on Sunday will send a negotiating club to talks in Qatar The declaration also asserted that Hamas was seeking unacceptable changes to the proposal U S President Donald Trump has pushed for an agreement and will host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to discuss a deal Inside Gaza Israeli airstrikes killed Palestinians and another were killed while seeking food aid hospital functionaries in the embattled enclave explained The Associated Press And two American aid workers with the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were injured in an attack at a food distribution site which the organization blamed on Hamas without providing evidence Weary Palestinians expressed cautious hope after Hamas gave a positive response late Friday to the latest U S proposal for a -day truce but stated further talks were needed on implementation We are tired Enough starvation enough closure of bridging points We want to sleep in calm where we don t hear warplanes or drones or shelling announced Jamalat Wadi one of Gaza s hundreds of thousands of displaced people speaking in Deir al-Balah She squinted in the sun during a summer heat wave of over degrees Celsius degrees Fahrenheit Hamas has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war s end while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the militant group s destruction Send a delegation with a full mandate to bring a comprehensive agreement to end the war and bring everyone back No one must be left behind Einav Zangauker mother of hostage Matan Zangauker advised the weekly rally by relatives and supporters in Tel Aviv A Palestinian healthcare provider and his children killed Israeli airstrikes struck tents in the crowded Muwasi area on Gaza s Mediterranean coast killing seven people including a Palestinian practitioner and his three children according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza Three people were killed in three strikes in Khan Younis Israel s army did not right away comment Separately eight Palestinians were killed near a GHF aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah the hospital stated One Palestinian was killed near another GHF point in Rafah It was not clear how far the Palestinians were from the sites GHF denied the killings happened near their sites The organization has stated no one has been shot at its sites which are guarded by private contractors and can be accessed only by passing Israeli military positions hundreds of meters yards away The army had no immediate comment but has revealed it fires warning shots as a crowd-control measure and only aims at people when its troops are threatened Another Palestinian was killed waiting in crowds for aid trucks in eastern Khan Younis bureaucrats at Nasser Hospital explained The United Nations and other international organizations have been bringing in their own supplies of aid since the war began The case did not appear to be connected to GHF operations Much of Gaza s population of over million now relies on international aid after the war has largely devastated agriculture and other food sources and left a large number of people near famine Crowds of Palestinians often wait for trucks and unload or loot their contents before they reach their destinations The trucks must pass through areas under Israeli military control Israel s military did not straightaway comment American aid workers injured The GHF declared the two American aid workers were injured on Saturday morning when assailants threw grenades at a distribution site in Khan Younis The foundation mentioned the injuries were not life-threatening Israel s military reported it evacuated the workers for medicinal recovery The GHF a U S - and Israeli-backed initiative meant to get around the U N distributes aid from four sites that are surrounded by Israeli troops Three sites are in Gaza s far south The U N and other humanitarian groups have rejected the GHF system saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon violates humanitarian principles and is not effective Israel says Hamas has siphoned off aid delivered by the U N a claim the U N denies Hamas has urged Palestinians not to cooperate with the GHF GHF registered in Delaware began distributing food in May to Palestinians who say Israeli troops open fire almost every day toward crowds on roads heading to the distribution points Several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded according to Gaza s Medical Ministry and onlookers The U N human rights office says it has recorded Palestinians killed within a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid the bulk of them while trying to reach GHF sites The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct killing specific people and taking others hostage Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over Palestinians more than half of them women and children according to Gaza s Soundness Ministry which is led by healthcare professionals employed by the Hamas regime It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but the U N and other international organizations see its figures as the majority of reliable statistics on war casualties