GAZA/JERUSALEM/UNITED NATIONS - Hamas said in an official statement on Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff on a general framework for Gaza ceasefire.

According to Hamas, the framework includes the release of 10 Israeli hostages and several bodies, in exchange for the release of an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners, guaranteed by mediators.

Hamas said it is awaiting a final response to this framework, adding that "it is making significant efforts to halt the brutal war on the Gaza Strip."

The group said the framework "will ensure a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the flow of aid, and a professional committee assuming control of the Strip's affairs immediately after the agreement is announced."

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A Hamas official, who requested anonymity, said on Monday that Hamas had agreed to a proposal presented by Witkoff for a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, Witkoff denied that Hamas has accepted his proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, according to the Axios news site.

Israel has not yet announced its official position on the proposal, while Israeli media outlets have quoted officials as saying that Israel rejects the proposal and will not accept it.

Israeli conditions for ending war

Abdel Mohdy Motawe, executive director of the Cairo-based Middle East Forum for Strategic Studies and National Security, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "rejects any idea of ending the war in the Gaza Strip except on certain conditions: Hamas withdrawing from Gaza's governance, disarming Gaza, and then exiling Hamas leaders" from the Strip.

"There is an Israeli consensus on these conditions with the US administration, making it unlikely for Netanyahu to stop the war unless the conditions are met, though he might accept a partial deal," Motawe told Xinhua.

Mokhtar Ghobashy, secretary-general of the Al-Farabi Center for Studies in Egypt, stressed that the lack of substantial international pressure has enabled Israel to pursue its strategy in Gaza, adding the US pressure on Israel is insufficient.

"Israel is exploiting the time frame and the regional context to pursue a dangerous, systematic approach for displacing Palestinians," he said.

Insufficient aid

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that two food distribution compounds operated by private US companies had begun functioning in southern Gaza.

The initiative followed more than 11 weeks of an Israeli blockade preventing humanitarian supplies from reaching the enclave. Limited aid shipments were allowed last week, after UN experts warned that famine is spreading.

READ MORE: Hamas agrees to US proposal on truce

Thousands of Palestinians crowded into a humanitarian aid distribution center in Rafah on Tuesday, triggering chaos and a breakdown of order on the site's first day of operation under Israeli military oversight.

The center, established at the Al-Alam roundabout in southern Gaza by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-based organization, was intended to deliver food aid to a population facing severe shortages due to Israel's blockade. But scenes of disorder quickly unfolded as residents overran the facility, seizing food parcels and even dismantling parts of the barbed wire fencing that surrounded the site.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said at a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that the UN is not involved in the GHF's operations in Gaza, and added that "it is a distraction from what is actually needed."

Laerke said what is truly needed is the reopening of all crossing points into Gaza.

Israel launched a ground and air offensive in Gaza following the Oct 7, 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. The ensuing Israeli bombardments have devastated large parts of the enclave, killing at least 54,084 people and wounding 123,308 others, said the health authorities in Gaza on Wednesday.

Israel halted the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2, following the expiration of the first phase of a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas. It resumed attacks on Gaza on March 18. 

55 killed in Israeli attacks 

At least 55 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in Israeli attacks across Gaza, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense.

In northern Gaza, nine people were killed and several others, including a journalist, were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the home of the Al-Arbid family in the Saftawi area, while 10 people, including a woman, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian gathering and a mobile phone charging point in Jabalia, Basal told Xinhua.

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In central Gaza, six people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting the home of the Aqeelan family in Deir al-Balah, while two others were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp, Basal said.

In southern Gaza, 20 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on houses, tents, and Palestinian gatherings across Khan Younis, whereas five people were killed and 15 others wounded by Israeli army gunfire as they attempted to reach an aid distribution center north of Rafah, Basal said.

Three people, including a child, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Shuja'iyya and al-Tuffah neighborhoods in eastern Gaza City, Basal added.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that its troops continue military operations across Gaza, and that the Israeli Air Force struck dozens of targets throughout Gaza over the past 48 hours, including anti-tank missile posts and weapon storage facilities, among others.

Two-state solution is on life support

The interim UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process warned on Wednesday that the two-state solution is on life support, calling for collective action to revive it.

There can be no sustainable peace in the Middle East without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The region's future will remain bound to its unresolved past, unless bold political will and decisions break the cycle, she told the Security Council.

READ MORE: UK, EU harden stance toward Israel

Palestinian statehood is a right, not a reward, she said.

The upcoming high-level international conference in June, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, presents a critical opportunity. It must not be another rhetorical exercise. It must launch a path toward ending the occupation and realizing the two-state solution based on international law, UN resolutions and previous agreements, said Kaag. "We need to pivot ourselves from declarations to decisions. We need to implement rather than adopt new texts."

While war-torn Gaza rightly captures the world's attention, the West Bank is on a dangerous trajectory, she warned.

International engagement and alignment are critical, said Kaag. "We need to act now to reverse the current trajectory. A well-defined, widely supported and timebound political process, accompanied by safeguards and guarantees, is essential."

UN rejects Israeli Gaza aid claim

A UN spokesman on Wednesday rejected Israel's claim that the world body has failed to pick up humanitarian supplies for Gaza at a border crossing.

UN humanitarians in Gaza continue to put their lives at risk, trying to pick up aid from Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem, the only crossing that is open, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The spokesman made the statement in response to Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon's claim earlier Wednesday that the United Nations failed to pick up more than 400 truckloads of aid on the Gaza side of the crossing.

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"As we speak, there are more than 400 trucks already on the Gaza side of the fence, waiting to be distributed. But the UN has failed to pick them up," Danon told reporters. "We opened the crossings. We provided safe routes for those trucks. But the UN did not show up."

Dujarric said that picking up aid from the Gaza side is extremely difficult.

All the missions that the United Nations asked for on Wednesday had been denied by the Israeli authorities, said the spokesman.

"If we're not able to pick up those goods, I can tell you one thing: it is not for lack of trying," he said.

Dujarric challenged the Israeli authorities to allow the international press into Gaza to see what is happening.