US Tells UN Hamas Is to Blame for Deaths Since Israel Resumed Gaza Hostilities

 United States UN Ambassador Dorothy Shea addresses the United Nations Security Council, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)
United States UN Ambassador Dorothy Shea addresses the United Nations Security Council, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)
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US Tells UN Hamas Is to Blame for Deaths Since Israel Resumed Gaza Hostilities

 United States UN Ambassador Dorothy Shea addresses the United Nations Security Council, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)
United States UN Ambassador Dorothy Shea addresses the United Nations Security Council, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)

The United States told the UN Security Council on Friday that the Palestinian group Hamas was to blame for the deaths in the Gaza Strip since Israel resumed hostilities there.

"Hamas bears full responsibility for the ongoing war in Gaza and for the resumption of hostilities. Every death would have been avoided had Hamas accepted the bridge proposal that the United States offered last Wednesday," acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the 15-member council.

Israel effectively abandoned a two-month-old truce three days ago, and has resumed its aerial bombardment and ground campaign, saying it wanted to press the militants to free remaining hostages.

Hamas said on Friday it was reviewing the US proposal to restore the ceasefire.

Of the more than 250 hostages originally seized in Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel - which triggered the war in Gaza - 59 remain in the enclave, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told the council that, in recent days, Israel had "eliminated several top Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists".

Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday alone killed more than 400 Palestinians, with scant let-up since then.

"Hamas has a choice," Danon said. "They can come back to the table and negotiate, or they can wait and watch their leadership fall, one by one. We will not stop until our people come home, all of them."

French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont urged Israel to "unconditionally resume humanitarian aid, to stop the bombing, to stick to the logic of negotiations, however slow they may be, and to stop responding to cruelty with the unleashing of violence".



Israel Seals off the Occupied West Bank

Palestinians walk by the closed Deir Sharaf checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk by the closed Deir Sharaf checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Seals off the Occupied West Bank

Palestinians walk by the closed Deir Sharaf checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk by the closed Deir Sharaf checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)

Israel closed all checkpoints to the Israeli-occupied West Bank Friday as the country attacked Iran, a military official said Friday.

The move sealed off entry and exit to the territory, meaning that Palestinians could not leave without special coordination.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military recommendations.

Around 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under Israeli military rule.

With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Israeli military operations in the West Bank have grown in size, frequency and intensity.

The crackdown has also left tens of thousands unemployed, as they can no longer work the mostly menial jobs in Israel that paid higher wages.

Israel launched a wave of strikes across Iran on Friday that targeted its nuclear program and military sites, killing at least two top military officers and raising the prospect of an all-out war between the two bitter adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq.

The strikes came amid simmering tensions over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and appeared certain to trigger a reprisal. In its first response, Iran fired more than 100 drones at Israel. Israel said the drones were being intercepted outside its airspace, and it was not immediately clear whether any got through.

Israeli leaders cast the attack as necessary to head off an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that.