Image source, Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images

We're still learning more about discussions on a new ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, but the sticking points are familiar ones, our Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell writes.

Details about the US-backed plan are scarce - we only know that it is now being reviewed by Hamas. Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet says the neither side wants to be blamed for the failure of this latest push for peace.

In the background, the aid shortage continues in Gaza, with the UN issuing fresh warnings that Palestinians are facing forced starvation.

To catch up on the detail, you can read the summary we put together. We're pausing our live coverage for now, but for more, you can read our full story.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's Minister of Defence Israel Katz has vowed to build a "Jewish Israeli state" in the West Bank, according to reports from the AFP news agency and the Times of Israel.

It comes after Israeli ministers said 22 new settlements had been approved in the occupied territory. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are widely seen as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Katz has said that the settlements are a "clear message" to French President Emmanuel Macron: "They will recognise a Palestinian state on paper -- but we will build the Jewish Israeli state here on the ground."

As a reminder, this morning Macron called for a hardening of the "collective position" with respect to Israel if more is not done to ease the humanitarian position in Gaza.

Tinshui Yeung
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

If you’re just joining us, here’s the latest on the situation in Gaza.

• A Hamas official says they’ve received a response from Israel to the proposal put forward by the US but says the response doesn’t meet their demands
• However, the official hasn’t rejected the proposal outright – he says Hamas leadership is reviewing it
• This follows the White House announcement last night that Israel had "signed off" on a US-proposed ceasefire plan - take a look at what is reportedly in the ceasefire proposal
• Meanwhile, a senior UN official has told the BBC that Gaza is facing forced starvation
• The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says no civilians were injured while distributing aid, after the UN's Human Rights Office reported that nearly 50 people were hurt when crowds overwhelmed an aid centre

• Israel's foreign ministry has hit back at French President Emmanuel Macron, saying he is on a "crusade against the Jewish state" - earlier, Macron said "we will have to harden our collective position" if Israel doesn’t do more to address the humanitarian crisis

There have been 72 people killed and 278 wounded in Gaza over the past day, according to a daily update from Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

The ministry says these numbers do not include hospitals in the north of Gaza "due to difficulty in accessing them".

It adds that the death toll since the beginning of the war on 7 October 2023 has risen to 54,321 people, with more than 120,000 wounded.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after Hamas' attack on 7 October 2023 killed more than 1,200.

As we've been reporting, the UN's Human Rights Office has said nearly 50 people were injured when crowds overwhelmed a new aid distribution centre run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah on Tuesday.

Now, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has released an update, saying the report is inaccurate.

“No civilians or individuals involved with the distribution of aid were injured, no lives were lost and all available food was distributed without interference this week,” the group says.

It says it plans to scale up operations, including building more sites across Gaza, especially in the north, in the coming weeks.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, reuters

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called the US-Israel plan to distribute aid "ineffective".

Secretary-General Christopher Lockyear says the food distribution process that has taken place so far has been "disastrous".

"On 27 May, the first afternoon of distribution in Rafah, south Gaza, dozens of people were shot and injured as wholly insufficient amounts of basic lifesaving supplies were distributed amid chaos," he writes.

"Palestinians - deprived of food, water and medical aid for nearly three months - were penned in by fences as they waited to receive basic necessities for survival."

Lockyear says the most vulnerable have "virtually no chance" of accessing the supplies.

He further suggests aid is being used "as a tool" to displace people.

• A new aid distribution group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering aid - but the group has been controversial. We have more on that in our news story

Image source, EPA

Israel's foreign ministry has hit back at Emmanuel Macron, accusing the French president of being on a "crusade against the Jewish state".

Earlier Macron said "we will have to harden our collective position" if Israel does not do more to respond to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In a strongly-worded response on X, the ministry writes: "The facts do not interest Macron. There is no humanitarian blockade. That is a blatant lie.

"Israel is currently facilitating the entry of aid to Gaza through two parallel efforts," it says, citing aid entering via the United Nations and the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.

In recent days the UN has continued to press for more aid to be allowed into Gaza, following the easing of an 11-week blockade.

Earlier on Friday, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs accused Israel of blocking the vast majority of aid from entering Gaza.

Fergal Keane
Special correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The UN's humanitarian chief says that people in Gaza are being subjected to forced starvation by Israel.

In an interview with the BBC, Tom Fletcher says he believes this had led to a change in the international response to Gaza.

Asked if his assessment of forced starvation amounted to a war crime, he says: "Yeah, it is. It is classified as a war crime. Obviously, these are issues for the courts to take the judgement on, and ultimately for history to take a judgement on."

Fletcher also expresses regret for recently saying that 14,000 babies could die within 48 hours in Gaza if aid was not allowed in - a claim the UN later drew back - and acknowledged a need to be "precise" with language.

Israel began to allow limited aid into Gaza last week, after an almost three-month blockade had halted the delivery of supplies such as food, medicine, fuel and shelter.

It resumed its military offensive two weeks after imposing the blockade, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

Israel said the steps were intended to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

• Read more from Fergal Keane's report: Gaza subjected to forced starvation, top UN official tells BBC

Video shows panic and injuries in central Gazapublished at 13:25 British Summer Time 30 May

13:25 BST 30 May

By Richard Irvine-Brown and Emma Pengelly

We've been analysing two videos from social media of Palestinians running south on Salah al-Din Road near al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

In one video, people run and duck for cover from what sounds like whistles of gunfire. One man carries a sack, presumably of aid, on his shoulder.

The source of the gunfire is unclear. In the other video, two men with leg wounds are seen being loaded onto vehicles.

There are claims on Palestinian social media that people were fired on when approaching an aid distribution point near Netzarim.

The video of people running for cover was filmed about 1.6km (one mile) from a site run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and about 3.5km from the Netzarim Corridor, while the video of the wounded was filmed a further 600m (2,000ft) south.

Shadows show the sun is in the northeast, so both videos were filmed in the morning.

We've also searched for older versions but these clips are newly circulating online today.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

If you look at some of the sticking points that are being talked about, they are very familiar ones.

Hamas has been demanding that the US guarantees that any temporary ceasefire it signs up to will lead to a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli troop withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The group also wants a return to the aid mechanism that was in place during the last ceasefire, with the UN overseeing that.

This would see a big surge of aid going into Gaza, and a real lifting of the restrictions on aid that are still currently in place.

Wide gaps remain between both sides in ceasefire talkspublished at 12:50 British Summer Time 30 May

12:50 BST 30 May

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

“Constructive ambiguity” is often used by mediators to allow opposing sides to say their demands were met.

But it’s clear there are major contradictions between what each side believes is the deal now on the table.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC there are key differences between what they were told by a US mediator earlier this week and what is in the latest proposal.

Israeli media are quoting Israeli officials who insist they never agreed to details now being cited on issues from how aid will be distributed to how and when the war will end.

Ceasefire deals are also rarely guaranteed by one individual but the implementation of this one seems to largely rest on the personal commitment of US President Trump.

Even that is vaguely worded.

Neither side wants to be blamed for the failure of this latest push to bring Israeli hostages home, end the suffering of Gazans, and achieve a sustainable ceasefire.

So the warring sides, as well as mediators Qatar and Egypt, are still trying to close the gaps – but it’s clear they still remain very wide.

Back now to the US-proposed ceasefire plan for Gaza. Hamas says it is studying the proposal, but says it fails to meet the group's core demands.

The full details haven't been made public and are unconfirmed, but the news agency Reuters reports these key points are included:

• A 60-day pause in fighting
• The release of 28 Israeli hostages - alive and dead - in the first week, and the release of 30 more once a permanent ceasefire is in place
• The release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians
• The sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza via the United Nations and other agencies

Israeli protesters have gathered near the Kerem Shalom border crossing to try to block trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza.

One of those joining the protest said aid should not be allowed to enter Gaza until Hamas accepts the US ceasefire proposal and returns hostages.

The below images show the scene outside of a food kitchen in Gaza earlier today.

They come from the European Pressphoto Agency, which says they show internally displaced Palestinians gathering at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

As we've been reporting, the UN and humanitarian organisations have long been warning of food shortages and calling for more aid to be allowed in.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

A UN body has accused Israel of blocking the vast majority of aid from entering Gaza, and letting almost no ready-to-eat food into the territory, according to the Reuters news agency.

Gaza is the "hungriest place on Earth", says Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Laerke tells reporters that only 600 out of 900 aid trucks had been given permission to get to Israel's border with Gaza - with both bureaucratic and security obstacles making it nearly impossible to safely get aid to people.

"100% of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine," he says.

Image source, Reuters

More now on that statement from Hamas official Basem Naim.

He says Hamas has received an "official response" from Israel to the proposal put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

That Israeli response, Naim says, "fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people, among them an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza".

But, he adds, "Hamas leadership is currently undertaking a thorough and responsible review of the new proposal".

"This evaluation is guided by a deep sense of national responsibility and a steadfast commitment to protecting the rights and the future of Palestinian people on his land," Naim continues.

A Hamas official says the group is undertaking a "thorough" review of the US ceasefire proposal, but it "fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people".

We'll bring you more from that statement shortly.

Image source, Reuters

There's been a lot of talk this morning about a fresh proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. In case you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

• Last night, the White House said Israel had "signed off" on a US-proposed plan for a ceasefire, and was waiting for formal response from Hamas
• It would reportedly include the handing over of some Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as well as the release of some Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails - here's what could be included
• A senior Hamas official has told the BBC that it is still studying the proposal, but says it doesn't meet the group's core demands - the BBC's Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf reports on the three sticking points

• Meanwhile calls for aid to be allowed into Gaza have continued. The UN's humanitarian chief tells the BBC that Gazans have been subjected to forced starvation by Israel
• And French President Emmanuel Macron says "we will have to harden our collective situation" if Israel does not do more to respond to the ongoing humanitarian situation

Image source, EPA

As we've been reporting, the UN is continuing to call on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza amid reports of looting and widespread food shortages.

In a post on social media this morning, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) says it has enough supplies in a warehouse in Amman, Jordan - a three hour drive away - which could sustain more than 200,000 people for a month.

"Flour, food parcels, hygiene kits, blankets and medical supplies are ready to be delivered. Gaza needs aid at scale - an unhindered, uninterrupted flow of supplies must be allowed in," it says.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says it is time to use "full force" in Gaza.

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, Ben-Gvir says there are now "no more excuses", claiming that Hamas has rejected a ceasefire deal.

As a reminder, a senior Hamas official has told the BBC that a US plan for a ceasefire in Gaza fails to meet its core demands but it will continue to study the proposals.

"The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities," Ben-Gvir says.

"It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one."