US President Donald Trump says Israel has agreed to “the necessary conditions to finalise” a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, and urges Hamas to accept the proposal.

    Israeli forces have killed 109 Palestinians across Gaza, including 28 who were shot while waiting for food parcels at the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.

    Officials at al-Shifa, the largest medical centre in northern Gaza, say hundreds of patients are “facing death” as the hospital runs out of fuel amid Israel’s blockade.

    Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,647 people and wounded 134,105, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

More than 100 staff accuse BBC of ‘anti-Palestinian racism’

    The 107 employees, along with 300 media industry figures, have written to BBC leadership, accusing the broadcaster of “censorship” when it comes to Israel and “performing PR for the Israeli government and military”.

    Their letter, published in Deadline, cited in particular the BBC’s recent decision not to air the Gaza: Medics under Fire documentary, saying the move was “just one in a long line of agenda driven decisions”.

    “Much of the BBC’s coverage in this area is defined by anti-Palestinian racism,” the employees said.

    They also said the BBC has failed to offer any significant analysis of the UK government’s involvement in the war on Palestinians, including weapons sales or their legal implications.

    “Since October 2023 it has become increasingly clear to our audiences that the BBC’s reporting on Israel/ Palestine falls short of our own editorial standards. There is a gulf between the BBC’s coverage of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank and what our audiences can see is happening via multiple credible sources,” they said.

    “The BBC’s editorial decisions seem increasingly out of step with reality. We have been forced to conclude that decisions are made to fit a political agenda rather than serve the needs of audiences,” they added.

    All the BBC staff who signed the letter did so anonymously, while the industry figures supporting their call included actors Khalid Abdalla and Miriam Margolyes.

    Countries at war seeing US, Israeli actions in Gaza ‘as a model to follow’

    We’ve been speaking to Antony Loewenstein, a journalist and the author of The Palestine Laboratory, a book on Israel’s arms and surveillance industry.

    He told Al Jazeera that he is worried that other countries will see the US and Israel’s militarised aid operations, via the GHF, as a model.

    “I’ve written a lot about the issue of Palestine being a model for the surveillance and weapons industry, and it’s now exported globally. What I am already hearing is that what Israel and America is doing in Gaza is looked at by other countries as a model,” Loweinstein said.

    “You and I might see this as a disaster – civilians are being murdered at huge rates – but that’s not an impediment to other countries doing the same thing in their own conflicts.

    “Why? Because there’s no accountability. There’s been hundreds of Palestinians killed in the last month, but no Israeli soldiers are being held to account, no trial is happening in Israel, and there frankly won’t be.

    “Israel investigates itself, and easily finds itself innocent,” Lowenstein added.

    “This is what worries me, that what’s happening in Gaza is a model that other countries will follow in the months and years ahead.”

    WFP says the window to push back starvation in Gaza ‘closing fast’

    The World Food Programme is warning that the opportunity to push back starvation in Gaza is closing fast as Israel continues to restrict the entry of aid into the besieged enclave.

    Samer Abdel Jaber, the WFP’s regional director, said the agency needs three things to address the hunger crisis in Gaza.

    These are “multiple points of access and safe routes to reach families that are constantly being displaced; support from the international community to allow and enable humanitarian actors to do their job; and more than anything, we need a sustained ceasefire,” he said.

    US senator slams Irish ban on trade with Israeli settlements as ‘hateful’

    Jim Risch, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has accused Ireland of “blatant” anti-Semitism for its plan to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

    “Ireland, while often a valuable US partner, is on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering,” Risch said in a post on X.

    “If this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties,” Risch added.

    Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris said last week that Ireland had become “the first country in Europe to bring forward legislation to ban trade with the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

    “Ireland is speaking up and speaking out against the genocidal activity in Gaza,” Harris said.

    The Israeli Settlements Bill, approved by the Republic of Ireland’s cabinet last month, would make it an offence under the Customs Act to import goods from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

    What are the sticking points in Israel-Hamas truce talks?

    We’ve been reporting on a new push by the US for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

    The Axios news website is reporting that Trump’s announcement came after talks between his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer at the White House. It said the two discussed “an updated ceasefire and hostage proposal put forward by Qatar”.

    There has been no comment from Doha yet.

    Here’s a reminder of the hurdles in previous rounds of talks:

• Permanent ceasefire: Hamas has called for guarantees for any temporary truce to lead to an end to Israel’s war and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel, however, has refused to provide such a commitment. It abandoned the three-phase ceasefire deal agreed to in January and resumed bombarding Gaza after rejecting negotiations on ending the war.
• Disarming of Hamas: Israel wants Hamas to lay down arms, cede control of Gaza and exile its leaders out of the Strip, but the Palestinian group has previously called this a “red line”, saying it will not disarm as long as Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory continues.

    During the last round of indirect talks in June, Israeli media reported that the US proposed a 60-day ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the release of 10 living Israeli captives and the bodies of 18 others, in exchange for 1,100 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

    The US proposal said Israeli forces would pull back from Gaza based on maps to be agreed upon, and that negotiations would also begin on a permanent ceasefire, the release of the remaining captives and Israeli “redeployment and withdrawals”.

    Hamas issued a counterproposal, asking for the negotiations on a permanent ceasefire to begin on day one of the truce, and for the Trump administration to guarantee the talks to reach a final settlement to the war.