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

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — U.S.-led ceasefire efforts in Gaza appeared to gain momentum Saturday after nearly 21 months of war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's office said Israel on Sunday will send a negotiating team to talks in Qatar.

The statement 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 14 Palestinians and another 10 were killed while seeking food aid, hospital officials in the embattled enclave told 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 60-day truce but said further talks were needed on implementation.

''We are tired. Enough starvation, enough closure of crossing points. We want to sleep in calm where we don't hear warplanes or drones or shelling,'' said 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 30 degrees Celsius (86 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, told the weekly rally by relatives and supporters in Tel Aviv.

A Palestinian doctor and his 3 children killed

Israeli airstrikes struck tents in the crowded Muwasi area on Gaza's Mediterranean coast, killing seven people including a Palestinian doctor 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 immediately comment.

Separately, eight Palestinians were killed near a GHF aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, the hospital said. 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 said 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 said 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, officials at Nasser Hospital said. The United Nations and other international organizations have been bringing in their own supplies of aid since the war began. The incident did not appear to be connected to GHF operations.

Much of Gaza's population of over 2 million now relies on international aid after the war has largely devastated agriculture and other food sources and left many 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 immediately comment.

American aid workers injured

The GHF said the two American aid workers were injured on Saturday morning when assailants threw grenades at a distribution site in Khan Younis. The foundation said the injuries were not life-threatening. Israel's military said it evacuated the workers for medical treatment.

The GHF — a U.S.- and Israeli-backed initiative meant to bypass 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 Health Ministry and witnesses. The U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid, most of them while trying to reach GHF sites.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children. according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is led by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

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Kullab reported from Jerusalem.

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