KEY POINTS
- Israel said its troops remain active in Gaza and warned residents not to return.
- Trump urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza after Hamas expressed readiness to release all hostages under his peace plan.
- Trump’s proposal includes a ceasefire, hostage release, Israeli withdrawal, Hamas disarmament, and a technocratic post-war administration.
- Gaza’s civil defence reported dozens of overnight Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City.
- UN rights chief calls the development a “vital opportunity” to end bloodshed.
GAZA CITY, Palestine: Israel said Saturday its troops were still operating in Gaza and warned residents not to return, despite calls from the families of Israeli hostages and US President Donald Trump for an immediate halt to the military offensive.
Trump issued the appeal to the key US ally after Palestinian group Hamas said it was ready to release all hostages and start talks on the details of his peace plan to end the nearly two-year of Israeli bombardment campaign.
“The movement announces its approval for the release of all hostages — living and remains — according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal,” Hamas said in a Friday statement.
Trump later posted on Truth Social: “Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!”
A senior Hamas official said Saturday the group was “ready to begin negotiations immediately to finalise all issues”.
Another Hamas official said Egypt, a mediator in the truce talks, would host a conference for Palestinian factions to decide on Gaza’s post-war future.
Trump’s proposal calls for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’s disarmament.
It also stipulates that Hamas and other factions “not have any role in the governance of Gaza”, with administration of the Palestinian territory instead taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
“President Trump’s demand to stop the war immediately is essential to prevent serious and irreversible harm to the hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“We call on Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu to immediately begin efficient and swift negotiations to bring all our hostages home.”
Heavy bombardment
But despite Trump’s appeal, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out dozens of attacks on Gaza City overnight, with nearby hospitals reporting casualties.
“It was a very violent night, during which the (Israeli army) carried out dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza City and other areas in the Strip, despite President Trump’s call to halt the bombing,” spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, as quoted by AFP.
Bassal, whose agency is a rescue force, said 20 homes were destroyed overnight.
The Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and urged residents not to return.
“The IDF (Israeli military) troops are still operating in Gaza City, and returning to it is extremely dangerous. For your safety, avoid returning north or approaching areas of IDF troop activity anywhere — including in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said on X.
Israeli media reported that the military had shifted to a defensive posture in Gaza following Trump’s call, though, according to AFP, the military did not confirm this to news agency.
Gaza City’s Baptist Hospital said it received casualties from a strike on a home in the city’s Tuffah neighbourhood, including four dead and several wounded.
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Further south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said two children were killed and eight people wounded in a drone strike on a tent in a camp for displaced Gazans.
Jamila al-Sayyid, 24, a resident of Gaza City’s Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, said “the bombing was intense throughout the night. I was happy when Trump announced a ceasefire, but the warplanes did not stop.”
Hopeful reactions
The latest developments drew hopeful reactions from world leaders and organisations, with UN rights chief Volker Turk saying it was a “vital opportunity” to stop bloodshed and misery in the Palestinian territory “once and for all”.
Since October 2023, Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 67,244 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Palestinian territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
