GAZA CITY: Israeli forces killed 32 more people across Gaza on Saturday, hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.

Asked about Hamas’s positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal, an Israeli official said “no decision has been made yet”.

It came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure for talks on Monday in Washington, where US President Donald Trump has intensified calls for an end to the war.

Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Saturday’s dead included eight people killed in two strikes on schools in Gaza City. He also reported that eight people were killed by Israeli fire near an aid distribution centre in southern Gaza.

On the other hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he asked US President Donald Trump to intervene to stop shootings at Gaza aid centres, which the UN says have killed more than 500 people.

Erdogan said when he met Trump at the Nato summit in June, he asked him to step in and halt the bloodshed.

“I asked him to intervene in the Gaza process telling him, ‘You are the one who will best manage this process with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’. There are people who are being killed in food queues in particular.

“You need to intervene here so that these people are not killed’,” he said, his remarks reported Saturday by Anadolu state news agency.

“Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its good will in this regard,” Erdogan said just days after his spy chief and foreign minister met separately with senior Hamas officials.

US pressure on Israel would be “decisive” in securing the success of the latest proposal for a 60-day truce in Gaza, he remarked, saying the issue of guarantees was “especially important”.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2025