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TEL AVIV: At least 25 people were killed by Israeli gunfire Wednesday while seeking aid, according to health officials and witnesses, as efforts to revive ceasefire talks resume and Israel’s prime minister said it will “allow” Palestinians to leave while scaling up the offensive in Gaza. efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed
Staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, as well as witnesses said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the strip. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the right thing to do was “allow” Gaza’s population to leave as Israel prepares for the next stage of the war by seizing Gaza City and other Hamas strongholds.
Netanyahu wants to realize US President Donald Trump’s vision of relocating much of Gaza’s population through what Netanyahu refers to as “voluntary migration.”
“Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,” Netanyahu said in an interview with i24, an Israeli TV station. “We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.”
Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The office of Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharren Haskel, said Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians.
Ceasefire talks set to reopen
Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after appearing to have broken down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials were set to meet Wednesday to discuss efforts to stop the war, according to Hamas official Taher Al-Nounou.
Israel has no current plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister’s office said.
Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory’s 2 million residents have sought refuge.
Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive.
Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, both alive and dead.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce.
Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded.
Killed while seeking aid
Among those killed while seeking aid Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3 kilometers away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to staff at Nasser hospital.
Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired toward them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said.
Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses.
The US and Israel support GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.
GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites Wednesday.
There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 meters (328 feet) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organization said, noting it has provided more than 1 million meals to aid seekers.
At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said.
The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Program and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group.
The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed.
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza’s population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.