Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

Israel said Saturday it was still mulling its response to a positive reaction from Hamas to the latest US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.

"No decision has been made yet on that issue," a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly about it.

Israel's security cabinet was due to meet later on Saturday, after the end of the Jewish sabbath at sundown, Israeli media reported.

Reporting by AFP.

The US mercenary firm overseeing a controversial Gaza aid programme is the creation of a bespectacled Chicago private equity baron and a CIA spy with old ties to a Donald Trump ally who participated in one of the Middle East's nastiest diplomatic rifts.

The story of Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) exemplifies the shadowy revolving door between old spies and Middle Eastern states, one that is increasingly being monetized by American investors flush with cash.

The spies running SRS also have old links to an intelligence company owned by a wealthy patron of pro-Israeli groups.

The intelligence firm, Circinus, is little known today but is unmistakable among diplomats and officials who remember the feud between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours during the first Trump administration.

Since Israel went to war on Gaza, SRS has sent Arabic-speaking mercenaries to oversee aid distributed by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Read more: The spy, private equity baron and ghost of a Trump donor: The revolving door behind a Gaza mercenary firm

Nine people have been killed on Saturday in an Israeli attack near an aid centre north of Rafah, including three children, according to medical sources at Nasser Hospital.

Another medical source at Ahli Hospital said another Palestinian was also killed and others injured in al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.

According to the draft of the ceasefire proposal obtained by Al Jazeera, US President Donald Trump would guarantee the continuation of the 60-day US-brokered ceasefire and all Israeli military activities will cease across the Gaza Strip.

The proposal also includes Hamas's agreement to release 10 living Israeli captives and the bodies of 18 captives, starting on the first day.

Also, the proposal says that talks on reaching a permanent ceasefire would start immediately.

As for aid, the deal would allow desperately needed aid into Gaza, which would include food supplies, and would be distributed through agreed-upon channels like the UN and the Red Crescent.

While Israeli operations would pause, other military and surveillance operations will stop for 10 hours a day.

According to the draft, Israel would also redeploy its forces in northern Gaza, the Netzarim Corridor and in southern Gaza.

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since Saturday morning, including eight aid seekers, according to Al Jazeera.

At least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on the town of Bani Suhaila, located east of Khan Younis, according to media sources from the Nasser Medical Complex.

The number of those killed in Gaza since the early hours of Saturday has reached 29.

Babies in Gaza are facing death as baby milk shortage reaches critical levels, said the Guardian quoting doctors in Gaza.

Dr Ahmad al-Farra, the head of paediatrics at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, said only a week’s worth of baby milk is remaining in his ward, which he is also forced to use for premature babies as specialised formula ran out.

“I can’t begin to describe how bad things are. Right now, we have enough formula for about one week. But we also have infants outside the hospital without any access to milk. It’s catastrophic,” al-Farra told the Guardian.

Infant formula have almost disappeared in Gaza as Israel allowed minimal amounts of aid into the Strip that lacks the baby milk.

The Guardian’s report points out that infant deaths are a worrying indicator of the impending famine crisis in Gaza, stating that Israel is blocking the entry of infant formula, and mothers are either dying or suffering from malnutrition.

A 27-year-old mother of five living at Al-Nuseirat refugee camp was quoted as saying that she struggled to get her 13-month-old-child some milk.

“The problem of getting milk started since my son’s birth, as due to my malnutrition and general weakness I wasn’t able to breastfeed my baby,” Hanaa al-Taweel told the Guardian.

According to the Guardian, doctors going into Gaza had to pack cans of infant formula in their personal luggage. In one incident, the Israeli authorities confiscated 10 cans of infant formula from the luggage of an American doctor who has recently entered the Strip for a medical duty.

One person was killed and two others were injured in an Israeli drone attack in Bint Jbeil, in the south of the country, according to t Lebanese Ministry of Health reported.

Earlier, we reported that an Israeli drone attack has been carried out on Saturday on the town of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.

An Israeli drone attack has been carried out on Saturday on the town of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.

We will provide more information as we receive it

At least two Palestinians were killed and others injured on Saturday in an Israeli attack on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Earlier, a number of people were injured when  Israeli fighter jets carried out an attack in al-Zarqa neighbourhood, east of Gaza City in northern Gaza.

Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians as they stormed the village of Rummana, located west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

Separately, Israeli settlers have attacked a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance.

Wafa reported that Israeli soldiers and settlers opened fire and used tear gas in clashes with local Palestinians, but no injuries were reported.

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that it was a “good thing” that Hamas has responded in “positive spirit” on a US-brokered ceasefire proposal.

Speaking to journalists on board Air Force, he said that there could be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire by next week, but added that he has no information regarding the current state of negotiations.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported  that Israel has received Hamas’s response on the  ceasefire proposal and is currently looking into details.

In the late hours of Friday, Hamas has said it has given its response to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators after consultations with Palestinian forces and factions.

“The movement has submitted a positive response to the mediators, and the movement is fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework,” the group said in a statement posted on Telegram.

In response, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement announced  its support to Hamas’s plans to start negotiations with Israel on a ceasefire in Gaza, but demanded additional “guarantees” to ensure the truce would be permanent.

“We presented [Hamas] a number of detailed points on the mechanism for putting in place the mediators’ proposal, and we want additional guarantees to assure us [that Israel] will not resume its aggression after [the captives] are freed,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza and developments in the occupied West Bank:

• US President Donald Trump said that Hamas's response to the ceasefire proposal was "a good thing". He added that he had not yet received any information on the matter, after Hamas had said it had delivered its response to the mediators and was seriously prepared to enter negotiations

• At least two people were killed and others injured Friday night into Saturday in an Israeli bombing that targeted the Abu Breik family's home in the Maghazi refugee camp located central of Gaza Strip

• Another five people were  were killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on al-Shafi School in Asqoula area of ​​the Zeitoun neighbourhood located southeast of Gaza City

• In al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, local sources reported that seven Palestinians were killed and more than 10 injured when Israeli forces targeted tents sheltering displaced people

• Separately, two people were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted a house in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central of Gaza

•  Palestinian sources quoted Israeli Channel 12 as saying that Israeli chief of staff in the Israeli army Eyal Zamir opposed the plan to control Gaza during a security meeting, warning against losing control over the situation.

Netanyahu has requested the preparation of a plan to evacuate Palestinians in Gaza to the south of the strip before his return from Washington DC, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday citing Israel's Channel 12.

Israel is reportedly seeking written assurances from US President Donald Trump that it will be allowed to resume military operations in Gaza if its demands are not met, even as talks over a 60-day ceasefire continue.

Citing a "member of the political echelon" - a phrase often used to signal deliberate leaks by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Israel’s Channel 14 reported on Wednesday that the current proposal includes a side letter from Trump.

The document would give Israel the green light to "renew the fire if our demands with regards to the disarmament of Hamas and the exile of its leaders are not met". Israel would be able to interpret, define and make a judgment call on these terms. 

In March of this year, Israel broke the ceasefire agreement and resumed military operations. However, many analysts at the time noted that Tel Aviv did not want the negotiations to continue. 

The latest developments come despite claims of public optimism from both Israeli officials and Trump.

You can read more here.