Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza -

PARIS, Oct 03 (Agencies): Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 57 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health officials said Thursday, as Hamas was still considering its response to US President Donald Trump's proposal for ending the nearly two-year war.

The plan requires Hamas to return all 48 hostages - about 20 of them thought by Israel to be alive - give up power and disarm in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. However, the proposal, which has been accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sets no path to Palestinian statehood.

Palestinians long for the war to end but many believe the plan favors Israel, and a Hamas official told The Associated Press that some elements were unacceptable, without elaborating. Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, said it requires more negotiations on certain elements.

Israel intercepts activist aid flotilla

At least 29 people were killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Officials there said 14 of them were killed in an Israeli military corridor where there have been frequent shootings around the distribution of humanitarian aid.

Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah said they had received 16 dead from Israeli strikes.

Doctors Without Borders said one of its occupational therapists was killed while waiting for a bus in Deir Al-Balah, in a strike that seriously wounded four other people. The international charity described Omar Hayek, 42, as a "quiet man of profound kindness and professionalism."

Hayek, who had recently fled south from Gaza City, is the 14th staffer from the organization to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, it said.

In Gaza City, health officials at Shifa Hospital said they received five bodies and several wounded people, adding that its staff are having difficulties reaching the hospital as Israel wages a major offensive aimed at occupying the city.

UN says notion of a safe zone

in southern Gaza 'farcical'

The United Nations insisted on Friday there was no safe place for Palestinians ordered to leave Gaza City,and that Israeli-designated zones in the southern Gaza Strip were "places of death".

Since launching its air assault on Gaza City in August ahead of its ground offensive there, the Israeli military has repeatedly told Palestinians to head south.

"The notion of a safe zone in the south is farcical," James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF, told journalists in Geneva.

Israel arrests over 20 journalists

on Gaza flotilla

Reporters Without Borders has condemned Israel's arrest of "more than 20 foreign journalists" after Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, calling for their immediate release. In a statement released on Thursday evening, the Paris-based media watchdog said there were more than 20 foreign reporters on board the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail last month for Gaza, where the United Nations says famine is taking place.

The journalists were arrested between Wednesday and Thursday when the Israeli navy began intercepting the boats ferrying politicians and activists including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg towards Gaza, RSF said. Vessels with more than 400 people on board had been prevented from reaching the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

Hamas says still needs time to

study Trump's Gaza plan

A Hamas official told AFP on Friday that the group still needed time to study US President Donald Trump's plan to end nearly two years of devastating war in Gaza.

The proposal, backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas's disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

That would be followed by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself. "Hamas is still continuing consultations regarding Trump's plan... and has informed mediators that the consultations are ongoing and need some time," the official said.