Hamas official: Terror group to submit response to Witkoff’s Gaza truce proposal today

‘The Hamas leadership has sold you out’: COGAT shares video of Gazan blasting terror chiefs

The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) issues a message to Gazans after a video posted to social media yesterday showed a Palestinian in the Strip criticizing Hamas’s leadership.

“Residents of Gaza, the Hamas leadership has sold you out. This is the same leadership that deceived you. Instead of focusing on caring for the civilian population, it abandoned its people, while senior leaders abroad indulge in luxury on airplanes, in hotels, and in restaurants,” says COGAT chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian in a Facebook post, where he attached an edited version of the social media video with subtitles. The full context of the clip is unclear.

Israel has been attempting to drive a wedge between Hamas and the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, in an effort to weaken the terror group’s rule in the Strip.

Yesterday, an Israeli defense official said Hamas’s rule in Gaza was slipping as a new aid distribution system ramped up activities.

A video of a Gazan man criticizing Hamas’s leadership in the Gaza Strip, in a video published on social media on May 30, 2025. (COGAT)

Hamas official: Terror group to submit response to Witkoff’s Gaza proposal today

Hamas will present its response to a ceasefire-hostage release deal proposal made by US special envoy Steve Witkoff later today, a senior official in the terror group tells al-Risala, a Hamas mouthpiece.

According to a copy of Witkoff’s latest proposal, the authenticity of which was confirmed to The Times of Israel by two sources familiar with the negotiations, Hamas would release 10 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza and return the bodies of 18 deceased hostages during a 60-day ceasefire.

In return, Israel would release 125 Palestinian terror convicts serving life sentences, 1,111 Gazans detained since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and 180 bodies of Palestinians currently held by Israel.

The US proposal stipulates that the sides still need to agree on the parameters of the IDF’s partial withdrawal from Gaza during the temporary truce.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel that Hamas was disappointed with the proposal, since it still gives Israel the option to resume fighting at the end of the temporary truce, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to do.

Not wanting to be pegged as the party to blame for the impasse, Hamas is leaning toward accepting the proposal, while submitting a series of reservations, the two sources said, in what will likely drag the talks out for at least several more days.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.

Syrian Kurds commander says he is in direct contact with Turkey, open to meeting Erdogan

Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaks during the pan-Kurdish “Unity and Consensus” conference in Qamishli, in northeastern Syria on April 26, 2025. (Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The commander of Kurdish forces that control northeast Syria says that his group is in direct contact with Turkey and that he would be open to improving ties, including by meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

The public comments represent a significant diplomatic overture by Mazloum Abdi, whose Syrian Democratic Forces fought Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels during Syria’s 14-year civil war.

Turkey has said the main Kurdish group at the core of the SDF is indistinguishable from the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which decided earlier this month to disband after 40 years of conflict with Turkey.

Abdi tells regional broadcaster Shams TV in an interview that his group was in touch with Turkey, without saying how long the communication channels had been open.

“We have direct ties, direct channels of communication with Turkey, as well as through mediators, and we hope that these ties are developed,” Abdi says. There is no immediate comment from Turkey on Abdi’s remarks.

He notes his forces and Turkish fighters “fought long wars against each other,” but that a temporary truce had brought a halt to those clashes for the last two months. Abdi says he hoped the truce could become permanent.

Local Hezbollah rocket unit commander killed in overnight south Lebanon strike, IDF says

A Hezbollah commander was killed in a drone strike in southern Lebanon overnight, the IDF says.

According to the military, the strike near Deir ez-Zahrani killed Muhammad Ali Jamoul, the commander of Hezbollah’s rocket unit in the Beaufort Castle area.

The IDF says Jamoul advanced numerous rocket attacks on Israel during the war, and was recently involved in attempting to restore Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.

His actions “constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military adds.

United Airlines announces resumption of Tel Aviv flights from June 5

View of a United Airlines flight at Ben Gurion Airport on August 3, 2013. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

United Airlines announces it will resume flight services from New York to Tel Aviv with a single flight on June 5.

The US airline says it will restart its second daily flight between the two cities the following day.

“This resumption follows a detailed assessment of operational considerations for the region and close work with the unions who represent our flight attendants and pilots,” United says in a statement.

United halted flight services between New York’s Newark airport and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on May 4 after a ballistic missile from Yemen struck an area at Israel’s main international airport.

Palestinian media reports over 100 aid trucks loaded with flour looted in Khan Younis area

People carry sacks of flour as aid trucks are apparently looted in the Khan Younis area on May 31, 2025 (Screen grab used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Over 100 UN World Food Programme trucks loaded with flour were looted in the Khan Younis area, Palestinian media reports.

The Ynet news site reports that distribution of the flour had been set to begin tomorrow.

Gunfire can be heard in video footage. There are no immediate reports of injuries.

Under pressure from allies, Israel began allowing some humanitarian aid into Gaza last week after blocking all food, medicine, fuel or other goods from entering since March 2.

Aid groups have warned of famine and say the aid that has come in is nowhere near enough to meet mounting needs of an increasingly desperate Gazan civilian population.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, and says it needs to be tightly controlled to prevent it from helping the terror group.

Iran’s FM says Tehran considers nuclear weapons ‘unacceptable’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, April 18, 2025. (Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via Reuters)

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that Iran considers nuclear weapons “unacceptable,” reiterating the country’s longstanding claim amid delicate negotiations with the United States.

“If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,” Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in the talks, says in a televised speech. “We agree with them on this issue.”

The United States, Israel and other Western countries have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Iran has categorically denied the claims, instead arguing that it is pursuing a nuclear program for civilian purposes alone. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, Iran is the only country in the world that enriches uranium up to 60 percent. That rate is only a technical step below the 90 percent threshold required for a nuclear weapon, and far above the 3.67 percent limit set under a 2015 agreement with world powers.

One person is said to have been killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon.

Lebanese reports cited by Hebrew-language media say the individual was killed in the strike in Deir ez-Zahrani.

There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

During the ongoing ceasefire in Lebanon, the IDF has continued to strike Hezbollah operatives and sites it says violate the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.

More than 150 Hezbollah operatives have been killed since the start of the ceasefire in November 2024.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The US government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.

A White House official confirms the investigation and says the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles’ number, the newspaper reported.

Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles, which may have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to the report. Some received text messages that they initially thought were official White House requests but some people reported the messages did not sound like Wiles.

The FBI warned in a public service announcement this month of a “malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which unidentified “malicious actors” have been impersonating senior US government officials.

The scheme, according to the FBI, has relied on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior US official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts.

“Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority,” FBI Director Kash Patel says in a statement.

It is unclear how someone gained access to Wiles’ phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers. Last year, Iran hacked into Trump’s campaign and sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump’s running mate.

Wiles, who served as a co-manager of Trump’s campaign before taking on the linchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts.

Reported to strike car in southern Lebanon

The IDF is reported to have struck in southern Lebanon overnight.

Local media says a car was destroyed by the military. There are no immediate further details.