Hamas formally rejects Israeli ceasefire offer
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00:00Let's head to the Middle East because the far-right Israeli minister, Bezalel Smotrich,
00:05has said it is time to open the gates of hell on Hamas and push ahead with a full military
00:11occupation after the armed group rejected Israel's latest ceasefire offer. Hamas' chief negotiator
00:17said they would not agree to partial deals, saying they would exchange all of the remaining
00:22hostages for Palestinian prisoners and an end to the war. Well, hospitals in Gaza say at least
00:2823 people were killed overnight and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes across the
00:33territory. There's been no immediate response from the Israeli military. Well, let's head
00:38to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Gary O'Donoghue. And Gary, worth putting today's developments
00:45in context, isn't it? Because there was a ceasefire hostage agreed by both sides, which Israel
00:52broke by not implementing phase two and phase three. So Israel's proposals today are in place
00:59of that original deal, aren't they?
01:04Yeah, it's a month. In fact, it's a month to the day since Israel resumed airstrikes on
01:09Gaza, March the 18th. And really, a couple of weeks before that, we were meant to have entered
01:15into phase two of the negotiations. Now, Israel at that time proposed an extension along with
01:20the U.S. Hamas rejected it. And then Israel resumed its bombing, having stopped any aid
01:26getting into Gaza from the beginning of March. So really, since then, since over the last month,
01:30the situation has been daily, nightly airstrikes by Israel. Local health officials, Hamas health
01:38officials on the ground say more than 1,600 people have died in that period of time. And
01:43the UN says that, well, practically half a million people have been displaced, partly by having to
01:51move from their houses being destroyed, but also by these, what Israel calls evacuation orders, what
01:57the UN calls displacement orders by Israel, asking them to move towards the coast, particularly in the
02:02south. Now, in the last few days, we've also seen some strikes in those areas where the civilians have
02:08been moving to, particularly these tented camps near Khan Yunus on the, just in from the coast.
02:16And certainly the children's agency, the UN children's agency, says some of the images we've seen
02:22from children dying in some of those strikes, appearing to die in those strikes,
02:26should shock us all to the core. So several dozen casualties per night, Israel saying it's targeting
02:33terrorists, naming some of those it's targeted, particularly one individual earlier this week who
02:38Israel says was Hamas main arms smuggler in terms of getting their munitions into the strip.
02:46But even though Israel, Matthew, is occupying around 30 percent of Gaza now on the ground,
02:51there isn't actually much on the ground fighting. Hamas, either through a lack of capacity or through
02:58some sort of strategic decision, are not really engaging very much with the Israelis on the ground.
03:03All these deaths are happening through airstrikes. Now, Israel says it takes every kind of mitigation
03:10it can in terms of precision munitions, intelligence, air surveillance, all that kind of thing. But
03:16still, the UN agencies are saying that this is now probably the worst humanitarian failure of this
03:22generation. And in the meantime, there's no aid at all getting into the strip.
03:27Gary, we'll have more on that particular thought in a moment or two. A quick brief final thought,
03:32because a couple of months ago, there was a real push from the US administration.
03:36Now, of course, they're dealing with Ukraine. We've been covering that on the program. There's
03:40trade issues. There's Iran. There's deportations. Does it feel where you are that the focus still is
03:46very much on that situation there?
03:49I don't think people feel that there's as much focus here as there was. I mean, if you think of
03:58the simple fact that Steve Witkoff, the president's envoy to the Middle East, is also the envoy for
04:02Ukraine. He's also the envoy for the Iran talks. Iran talks this weekend in Rome. We've had the Paris
04:08talks on Ukraine this week. It feels a little bit like the US, the attention of the US has moved away
04:14from this in the intractability and the fact that there's no there's no nothing on the table that
04:20either side are going to come together on in particular. And how this war ends is, frankly,
04:27anyone's guess, because no one knows what will come afterwards. Israel insists on the complete
04:32destruction and disarmament of Hamas. Hamas is still holding on to those hostages. It's really
04:38its only bargaining chip in that sense. And there are 59 of those, 24 who are said to be alive. So
04:44we're in a standoff at the moment. In the meantime, a lot of civilians are suffering.