Hamas 'exchanged ideas' in fresh push for Gaza truce deal

Hamas exchanged "some ideas" with mediators to end Israel's war in Gaza, the Palestinian group said in a statement, citing an official source.

It comes as Israel said it was studying Hamas' response to a proposal that would include a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza, according to Israel's Mossad spy agency.

"The mediators of the hostage deal have given the negotiating team Hamas' response to the hostage deal outline. Israel is examining the response and will respond to the mediators," said a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, on behalf of Mossad.

The statement gave no further details and Hamas was not immediately available for comment.

Mediators including Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying for months to secure a ceasefire and the release of 120 remaining hostages in Gaza, but their efforts have stalled.

Hamas has said that any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. But Israel claims it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until it eradicates Hamas.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's retaliatory war has killed nearly 38,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the enclave in ruins.

The ceasefire plan on the table, which was made public at the end of May by US President Joe Biden, entails the gradual release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and pullback of Israeli forces over two phases.

It also envisages the freeing of Palestinian prisoners, with the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the remains of deceased hostages in a third phase.

Gazans flee, seek shelter amid fresh strikes by Israel

Many Palestinians were seeking shelter after fleeing their homes in southern Gaza and complained of water shortages as Israel pressed on with its military offensive in the densely populated enclave.

Israeli forces carried out new strikes in the southern city of Rafah amid fierce fighting with Palestinian militants overnight, residents said.

At least 12 people were killed in new strikes in central and northern Gaza, health officials said.

Tensions also rose between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after the latest in frequent exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war.

Two security sources in Lebanon claimed an Israeli airstrike had killed a senior Hezbollah field commander, and Israel's defence minister said Israeli forces would be ready to take any action necessary against the group.

"We are striking Hezbollah very hard every day and we will also reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement from a position of strength.

"We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us we will know how to fight," Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement issued by his office.

Fighting is ongoing in some parts of Gaza despite Israeli leaders claiming they are winding down the phase of intense fighting against Hamas and will soon shift to what it claims will be more targeted operations in the nearly nine-month-old war.

One Israeli airstrike hit a house in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing Hassan Hamdan, head of the burns and plastic surgery department at Nasser Medical Complex, along with all his family members, the Gaza health ministry said.

Khan Younis residents said a lack of designated shelters meant many families had slept on the road because they could not find tents after Israeli army evacuation orders led to the displacement of thousands of people living east of the city.

The last functioning hospital in the area, the Gaza European Hospital, which had housed displaced families as well as patients, was also evacuated.

"We were told to evacuate the European Hospital. We came to Nasser Hospital, but it was full," said Ali Abu Ismehan, who was wounded by Israeli fire and had both his legs and pelvis broken.

"I am staying in the street, waiting for them to find me a place inside (the hospital)," he told Reuters.

An Israeli defence official claimed that although evacuation orders had been issued for the area where the European Gaza Hospital is located, staff and patients had been told they could stay.

Rising tensions

Another Israeli airstrike hit a car in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, killing three people, health officials said.

Deir Al-Balah is crowded with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced to flee homes elsewhere in Gaza, and residents complain of acute shortages of drinking water and inflated prices for basic foodstuff.

"There is no clean water to drink. We are forced to buy salty or unclean water at a high price," Shaban, a 47-year-old father of five, told Reuters via a messaging app.

He said many displaced people suffer from abdominal pains and diseases such as hepatitis.

In Lebanon, two security sources told Reuters the senior Hezbollah field commander who was killed had been outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and was responsible for a section of Hezbollah's operations along the frontier.

A Hezbollah statement identified him as Mohammed Nasser. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Tensions have also risen in recent months in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In the latest violence there, a 23-year-old Palestinian man was killed during an Israeli raid in the city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said.

There have also been violent incidents in Israel itself since the Gaza war began, and one person was killed and another wounded in a stabbing attack in a mall in the northern city of Karmiel.

Police described the incident as a suspected terror attack, and Israel's nYet news site claimed the accused attacker was from a town that is home to many members of Israel's Arab minority.

There was no claim of responsibility from any group, although the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, in a post on Telegram, described the attack as a "heroic operation."