Live Updates: Blinken heads to Qatar after Hamas truce deal reply

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

0512 GMT — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to talks in key mediator Qatar after Hamas gave a positive reply to a UNSC-backed proposal for a ceasefire in war-ravaged Gaza.

Blinken, on a four-country swing around the Middle East, will meet the top leadership of Qatar, which has transmitted messages to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Hamas, responding to the plan laid out on May 31 by President Joe Biden, proposed amendments late Tuesday including a ceasefire timeline and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, according to a source familiar with the talks.

The Biden plan calls for an Israeli withdrawal from "major population centres" and a ceasefire for six weeks, which would then be extended as negotiators reach a permanent deal.

0441 GMT — Palestinian child killed in Israeli attack on house in Rafah

A Palestinian child was killed and several people were injured in Israeli shelling of a house in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, local media reported.

According to the Palestinian official news agency WAFA, health officials said that Israel targeted a house in the Nasr neighbourhood in northern Rafah.

Israeli warplanes also bombed a house in the neighbourhood of Shuja'iyya in eastern Gaza City, but no information was shared about whether there were any fatalities or injuries.

2239 GMT — Hamas calls its truce response 'serious and positive'

Hamas's response to a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal "opens up a wide pathway" to reach an agreement, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, has said.

The movement's response is "responsible, serious and positive," al-Rishq said in a statement.

2100 GMT — UN adds Israeli army to blacklist for 'grave violations' against children

The UN has added the Israeli armed and occupation forces to "parties that commit grave violations affecting children in situations of armed conflict," according to a report.

Seen by Anadolu news agency, the yet-to-be-released report, which contains data for the year 2023, said: "In 2023, violence against children in armed conflict reached extreme levels, with a shocking 21 percent increase in grave violations."

Noting an increase of 35 percent in incidents leading to the death and wound of children compared to the previous year, the report said: "The United Nations verified 32,990 grave violations, of which 30,705 committed in 2023 and 2,285 were committed earlier but verified in 2023."

2052 GMT — Israel reportedly kills senior Hezbollah commander

Israel has killed at least four people in its strike on the village of Jouya in southern Lebanon, including a senior field commander in the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, three security sources told the Reuters news agency.

He was identified by the sources as the group's commander for the central region of the southern border strip, comprising some of the towns hardest hit in the last eight months of exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the commander's role in Hezbollah was as significant as that of Wissam Tawil, a senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike in January.

2001 GMT — US 'evaluating' Hamas reply to truce plan as Israel pummels Gaza

The United States is "evaluating" an official response by Hamas to the latest proposal for a truce in besieged Gaza, the White House said.

Washington has received the "reply that Hamas delivered to Qatar and to Egypt, and we are evaluating it right now," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told journalists, while declining to provide details on its content.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said the response included "amendments that confirm the ceasefire, withdrawal, reconstruction and (prisoner) exchange." Taha did not elaborate.

For our live updates from Tuesday, June 10, 2024, click here.