Mourners pray during a funeral of displaced Palestinians, killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for the internally displaced, at Khan Yunis' Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP
Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed to terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. The U.S. leader has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and captive agreement and bring about an end to the war.
Trump said the 60-day period would be used to work toward ending the war — something Israel says it will not accept.
He said a deal might come together as soon as next week.
But Hamas' response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the Palestinian group was “ready and serious regarding reaching an agreement.”
He said Hamas was “ready to accept any initiative that clearly leads to the complete end to the war.”
A Hamas delegation is expected to meet with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the proposal, an Egyptian official. told AP.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the talks with the media.
Israel and Hamas disagree about how the war should end
Throughout the nearly 21-month-long war, ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly faltered over whether the war should end as part of any deal.
Hamas has said it is willing to free the remaining 50 captives, less then half of whom are said to be alive, in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.
Israel says it will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and exiles itself, something the group refuses to do.
An Israeli official said the latest proposal calls for a 60-day deal that would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid to the territory. The mediators and the U.S. would provide assurances about talks on an end to the war, but Israel is not committing to that as part of the latest proposal, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the proposed deal with the media.
It was not clear how many captives would be freed as part of the agreement, but previous proposals have called for the release of about 10.
Without directly mentioning Trump's remarks, Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday said any opportunity to free captives held in Gaza should not be missed.
"A large majority within the government and the population is in favour of the plan to free the hostages. If the opportunity arises, it must not be missed!" Gideon Saar wrote on X.
On Monday, Trump is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House, days after Ron Dermer, a senior Netanyahu adviser, held discussions with top U.S. officials about Gaza, Iran and other matters.
Negotiations under fire
The push for a ceasefire comes as Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, alongside repeated attacks on Palestinians gathering near aid distribution points.
Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people on Wednesday.
In southern Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five members of the same family were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike that hit a tent housing displaced people in the coastal Al-Mawasi area.
AFP images from the nearby Nasser Hospital, in Khan Yunis city, showed medics treating young children covered in blood.
Some appeared terrified, while others lay still on hospital beds in bloodied bandages and clothes.
Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel in December 2023, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.
Further north, Bassal said that four people from the same family were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City, and another five in a drone strike on a house in the central Deir el-Balah area.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians in Gaza. More than half of the dead are women and children.
The Israeli war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened. More than 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, pushing hundreds of thousands of people toward hunger.
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