News - Middle East: Israel's far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir has called for using "full force" in Gaza, after false claims that Hamas decided on the latest US ceasefire proposal for the strip which meant “the perpetuation of occupation”.

"Mr. Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu], after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again -- there are no more excuses," Ben Gvir said on his Telegram channel on Friday.

"The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities. It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one."

The White House said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump and the US special envoy to West Asia, Steve Witkoff, had "submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed".

"Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding discussions were "continuing" with the resistance movement.

On Wednesday, Hamas said it has reached a framework agreement with Witkoff on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Political bureau member Bassem Naim on Thursday said the movement received Israel’s response to the framework agreement.

However, he noted that the Israeli response meant " the perpetuation of occupation and the continuation of killing and famine (even during the temporary truce) and does not meet any of our people's demands, foremost among them halting the war".

However, he said “the movement's leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility".

\AFP cited a source close to the group as saying that the new version "is considered a retreat" from the previous one, which "included an American commitment regarding permanent ceasefire negotiations".

Palestinian medical sources said at least 20 Palestinians have been killed in intensified Israeli strikes on Gaza since the dawn of Friday.

At least 20 people were also hit by Israeli fire while trying to reach an aid distribution point set up by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone cutting off the north of the Gaza Strip from the south.

Two people were killed in an Israeli bombardment on Gaza City on Friday morning.

Israel also intensified its air and artillery strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least two people.

Also in northern Gaza, three people were killed in an Israeli attack on the neighborhood of Saftawi, while seven others lost their lives in an Israeli strike on a house in Nazla.

In the south of Gaza, five people were killed Israeli attacks near Khan Yunis.

Meanwhile, a Palestinians man was killed in an Israeli bombardment targeting people trying to reach an aid distribution point set up northwest of Rafah on Friday morning.

Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed at least 54,249 Palestinians there so far, according to the health ministry of Gaza.

In January, the Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas, given the regime’s failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the “elimination” of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.

The 42-day stage of the truce, which was marred by repeated Israeli violations, expired on March 1, but Israel is refraining from stepping into talks for the second stage of the agreement.

On March 18, the regime resumed the strikes on Gaza, breaking the nearly two-month-long ceasefire.

Source: Press TV