{"id":151722,"date":"2025-05-31T22:06:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T22:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gaza-live-updates-hamas-response-to-gaza-plan-totally-unacceptable-says-us-envoy-bbc\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T22:06:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T22:06:55","slug":"gaza-live-updates-hamas-response-to-gaza-plan-totally-unacceptable-says-us-envoy-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gaza-live-updates-hamas-response-to-gaza-plan-totally-unacceptable-says-us-envoy-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza live updates: Hamas response to Gaza plan 'totally unacceptable' says US envoy – BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accuses Hamas of rejecting a US-backed ceasefire proposal<\/a>
This comes after the White House's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, labelled Hamas's response as "totally unacceptable<\/a>"
Earlier, Hamas said it would release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies<\/a> in its response to the US plan
Hamas's response constituted neither an explicit rejection nor a clear acceptance, <\/i>writes our correspondent Barbara Plett Usher<\/a>
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza and resumed its military offensive against Hamas on 18 March, collapsing a two-month ceasefire brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage
At least 54,381 people have been killed in Gaza<\/a> during the war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry
Edited by Neha Gohil and Jenna Moon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff have labelled Hamas's response to a new ceasefire plan as "totally unacceptable".
The comments come after Hamas pledged to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies<\/a> in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The statement also contained the organisation's well-known conditions: a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and guarantees for the continuous flow of humanitarian aid.
But as our correspondent Barbara Plett Usher notes, none of those conditions are currently on the table. As a result, Hamas's response is neither an explicit rejection nor acceptance of the terms the US and Israel have set out.
We are pausing our live coverage for now, but you can follow further developments on BBC News. <\/i>
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has released a statement about Hamas's response to the US-backed ceasefire deal.
In it, the office accuses Hamas of refusing the US ceasefire proposal and says Israel is committed to defeating the group. It also echoes the statement made a little earlier by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and says that Hamas is setting talks back.
The statement reads: "While Israel has agreed to the updated Witkoff outline for the release of our hostages, Hamas continues to adhere to its refusal.
"As the US president's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said: Hamas's response is unacceptable and sets the situation back.
"Israel will continue its action for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas."
Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff says Hamas's statement on the US's ceasefire proposal is "totally unacceptable and only takes us backward".
In a post on X, Witkoff writes: "Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.
"That is the only way we can close a 60 day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire."
An advocacy group for Israeli hostages held in Gaza gathered in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square today.
In a statement on social media, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum writes: "After 603 days of war, we wish to remind everyone that war is a means, not an end in itself."
While the group does not directly address the response from Hamas, it says that "the vast majority of the Israeli public is united around one consensus – bringing back all 58 hostages in a single operation, even at the cost of ending the war.
"This is the time to make a decision and choose the hostages – without the return of all hostages, there is no true victory."
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Mallory Moench<\/strong>
BBC News<\/span>
Christos Georgalas, a Greek surgeon who until 21 May volunteered with British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told the BBC his patients were mainly children, usually with shrapnel injuries.
"Children were the main victims in terms of trauma and malnutrition," he said on Friday. Malnutrition slows down the healing process and increases the risk of infections because wounds remain open longer, he explained.
He and hospital staff ate only rice for lunch and dinner, which he said made them lucky compared to others. One of his colleagues told him he had lost 26 kilos (57 pounds) over the last months.
Georgalas said a lot of doctors had not been paid for a year. Some live in tents, commuting without protection to work, or have to evacuate on short notice.
"They are worried for their relatives and lives, they are starved, despite that they continue," he said, praising their \u201cvery high level of care\u201d and \u201camazing skills\u201d.
The hospital and its grounds were twice hit while he was there, with one strike on 13 May killing a Palestinian photojournalist <\/a>being treated for injuries who Israel had previously accused of involvement in the 7 October Hamas attack, external<\/span><\/a> on Israel. On 19 May the hospital courtyard was hit but no one was injured, he said.
Georgalas said he saw no evidence of the hospital being used for military purposes during a month working and sleeping inside of it.
Since he left Gaza, his colleague told him the ICU had been "constantly full" and "overwhelmed", with doctors having to ration care because so many patients need intubation.
The IDF says that it killed Mohammed Sinwar, head of Hamas's military wing, in an air strike on 13 May.
The same strike also killed Mohammad Sabaneh, commander of Hamas's Rafah Brigade, and Mahdi Quara, commander of Hamas's South Khan Yunis Battalion, the IDF says.
The Israeli army says that they were "operating in an underground command and control center, under the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, deliberately endangering the civilian population in and around the hospital."
At the time, the Hamas-run civil defence agency said the strike killed 28 people and injured dozens of others.
Israeli warplanes dropped six bombs on the hospital simultaneously, striking its inner courtyard and surrounding area, according to local sources.
A freelance journalist working for the BBC was among those injured.
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Barbara Plett Usher<\/a><\/strong>
Reporting from Jerusalem<\/span>
The Israeli government has not officially commented on Hamas\u2019 response to the proposed ceasefire deal.
But local media are quoting senior Israeli sources who say the Palestinian group has in effect rejected the US proposal by suggesting amendments. The terms on offer were the ones Israel could accept \u2013 the White House made sure of that by getting Israel\u2019s approval before passing the proposal to Hamas.
It\u2019s unlikely the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in the mood to negotiate the changes Hamas wants. He\u2019s under pressure to bring the hostages home. And he\u2019s said he\u2019s willing to accept a temporary ceasefire to do so.
But the Israeli government has always insisted on the right to return to hostilities, despite Hamas\u2019 core demand for guarantees that the temporary truce be a path to ending the war. The prime minister has said the war will end when Hamas \u201clays down its arms, is no longer in government (and) its leaders are exiled from the Gaza Strip.\u201d
His Defense Minister Israel Katz was more blunt this week: "The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the 'Witkoff Deal' for the release of the hostages — or be annihilated," he said.
The UN has repeatedly warned of widespread hunger and starvation as a result of Israel's total blockade of Gaza – with a humanitarian chief recently calling it "forced starvation".
Israel resumed its bombardment of the Palestinian enclave in early March following six weeks of ceasefire and barred aid from reaching Gaza's more than 2 million residents.
Though aid has started entering the region, officials warn it is not enough. Between 500 and 600 lorries worth of supplies are required each day to adequately feed residents.
Crowds desperate for food have swarmed lorries that have arrived at distribution sites and 47 people were injured last week as people overwhelmed one such centre.
"We're seeing food set on the borders and not being allowed in when there is a population on the other side of the border that is starving, and we're hearing Israeli ministers say that is to put pressure on the population of Gaza", the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher recently told the BBC<\/a>.
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Rushdi Abualouf<\/strong>
BBC News Gaza correspondent, reporting from Cairo<\/span>
Hamas now finds itself in the most complex and difficult position it has faced since the war began.
Under intense pressure from 2.2 million people living the worst conditions in their history and from the mediators, the movement is unable to accept an American proposal that is, by all accounts, less generous than previous offers it has already rejected multiple times, the most recent being in March.
At that time, senior Hamas official and head negotiator Khalil al-Hayya stated unequivocally that the movement would not agree to partial deals that fail to secure a complete and permanent end to the war.
Yet, Hamas also finds itself unable to reject the latest US offer outright, fully aware that Israel is preparing to escalate its ground offensive in Gaza.
The movement lacks the military capacity to prevent or even seriously resist such an assault.
Caught between these two realities, Hamas released a brief and vague statement: neither a clear acceptance nor a definitive rejection.
In effect, the movement responded to the proposal not with an answer, but with an entirely new counterproposal.
At a news conference in Washington DC on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether she could confirm a report by Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that Israel and Hamas had agreed a new ceasefire deal.
"I can confirm that Special Envoy Witkoff and the president submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed and supported. Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas," she said.
Israel's Channel 12 TV also reported that Netanyahu told hostages' families at a meeting: "We agree to accept the latest Witkoff plan that was conveyed to us tonight. Hamas has not yet responded. We do not believe Hamas will release the last hostage, and we will not leave the Strip until all the hostages are in our hands."
His office later issued a statement accusing one of the channel's reporters of trying to "smuggle" a recording device into the room where the meeting took place. But it did not deny that he had agreed to the US proposal.
Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza released its daily report on the number of people killed and injured in the war.
Sixty people have died and a further 284 have been injured in the past 24-hours, the Hamas-run ministry says.
That does not include numbers from hospitals located in the North Gaza Strip Governorate because of the difficulty of accessing the area, it adds.
That brings the death toll to 54,381 since the beginning of the war on 7 October 2023. A further 124,054 have been injured.
Israel began its military offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas's attack on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people.
We're yet to hear from Israel on Hamas's response to the proposed ceasefire deal.
The United States, who's taken on a leading role in the negotiations, also hasn't reacted yet.
Stick with us and we'll bring you the latest reaction once we have it.
Hamas, a proscribed terror group in the UK, US and EU, has responded to the US-backed ceasefire proposal in Gaza, after initially rejecting its terms. <\/a>
Here's a look at what the group says about the proposal:<\/p>\n

The full details of the US-proposed ceasefire plan haven't been made public and are unconfirmed, but the news agency Reuters reports these key points are included:
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Barbara Plett Usher<\/a><\/strong>
Reporting from Jerusalem<\/span>
Hamas says it has submitted its response to a US ceasefire proposal presented earlier this week.
The group said in a statement that it was prepared to release ten living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages, which is the number specified in the proposed deal, in exchange for an agreed-upon release of Palestinian prisoners.
However, it also outlined its reservations about the draft \u2013 proposed by the US Envoy Steve Witkoff after getting approval from the Israelis, the White House said.
In a detailed response Hamas repeated the movement\u2019s well-known conditions: a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and guarantees for the continuous flow of humanitarian aid.
None of these are in the offer currently on the table, and Hamas\u2019s response constituted neither an explicit rejection nor a clear acceptance of the proposal.
Copyright \u00a9 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accuses Hamas of rejecting a US-backed ceasefire proposalThis comes after the White House's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, labelled Hamas's response as "totally unacceptable"Earlier, Hamas said it would release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in its response to the US planHamas's response constituted neither an explicit rejection nor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}