US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.
"I think great progress is being made on Gaza," Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: "Gaza is very close."
He linked his optimism about imminent "very good news" to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas's backer Iran to end their 12-day war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian group Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.
Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up.
"Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours," Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
He cautioned, however, that the group had "not yet received any new proposals" to end the war.
The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing "on the battlefield and via negotiations".
- 'No clear purpose' -
Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group's October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
In one of the war's deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza, taking its overall losses in the territory to 441.
The latest losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu's coalition government.
"I still don't understand why we are fighting there... Soldiers are getting killed all the time," lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.
The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Younis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.
At the funeral of 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe in Rehovot south of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, inconsolable loved ones sobbed alongside young soldiers in uniform.
One former comrade who served with Ben-Moshe in Gaza told AFP of the strain the war was putting on soldiers, saying it was time for it to end.
"Me, I was unable to complete my military service. I was so bad off mentally that I was demobilized," said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Ariel.
"I have seen so many kids like me die. It's time for it to stop."
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed the call to end the war.
"The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan," the group said in a statement.
Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian gunmen during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.
- Gunfire near aid site -
Gaza's civil defense agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli "bullets and tank shells" in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip".
The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the "weaponization of food" in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organizations there.
The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.
The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.
The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.
