KEY POINTS
- Trump had urged Israel to halt its bombardment, but strikes intensified afterward.
- Hamas and Israel are set to hold indirect talks in Cairo on Sunday and Monday.
- Trump’s envoys travelled to Egypt to help finalise details of the ceasefire deal.
- Hamas said it had accepted Trump’s ceasefire proposal and was ready to release all hostages.
- The Israeli military warned Gaza residents not to return to Gaza City.
- Since October 2023, Israel’s offensive has killed more than 67,074 Palestinians.
GAZA CITY, Palestine: Israeli strikes on Gaza killed at least 57 people since dawn on Saturday, the territory’s civil defence agency said, despite US President Donald Trump’s appeal for Israel to halt its bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
“The death toll from the ongoing Israeli bombardment since dawn today stands at 57, including 40 in Gaza City alone,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, said, as quoted by AFP.
Bassal said the victims in Gaza City included 18 people who were killed in an Israeli strike targeting the home of the Abdul Aal family in the city’s Al-Tuffa neighbourhood.
Mohammed Abu Salmiya, head of Gaza’s main Al-Shifa Hospital, cited by AFP, had earlier said that at least 39 people had been killed since dawn, including dozens in Gaza City.
“Since President Trump called on Israel to stop bombing Gaza, Israel has actually escalated its attacks,” said Mahmud Al-Ghazi, 39, a resident of Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City.
“Today, Israel bombed several homes full of civilians, like the Abdul Aal family home…The shelling continues with artillery and drones dropping bombs on civilians’ homes and directly targeting people,” he said.
“Who will stop Israel now? We need the negotiations to move faster to stop this genocide and the ongoing bloodshed,” he added.
Israeli media reported that the military had shifted to a defensive posture in Gaza following Trump’s call, though the military did not confirm this to AFP.
Hamas, Israel to hold indirect talks
Egyptian state-linked media reported on Saturday that Hamas and Israel will hold indirect talks in Cairo on Sunday and Monday to secure the release of hostages and detainees.
Al-Qahera News reported that both delegations “have begun moving to launch talks in Cairo tomorrow and the day after, to discuss arranging the ground conditions for the exchange of all detainees and prisoners, in accordance with Trump’s proposal”.
Two envoys of Trump headed to Egypt on Saturday to discuss the release of hostages in Gaza, after Hamas agreed to his ceasefire proposal.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to finalise details on the release of hostages and discuss a deal pushed by Trump to end the nearly two-year Israeli bombardment campaign, a White House official, cited by AFP, said.
The indirect talks come after Trump urged Israel to halt its bombardment of Gaza, following Hamas’s announcement that it was ready to release all the hostages and begin negotiations on the ceasefire proposal.
“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!”
On Saturday, Trump had a warning for Hamas, telling the Palestinian group he would “not tolerate delay” on the peace deal.
Israel announced on Saturday that it would work on “immediate implementation” of the first stage of the peace plan, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved during a visit to Washington.
Call for ‘swift negotiations’
A Hamas official, cited by AFP, 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 plan 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 Palestinian groups “not have any role in the governance of Gaza”, with administration of the 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, an Israeli group that has campaigned for the release of captives, said in a statement.
Israeli military warns residents not to return
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defence agency, told AFP that the night was “very violent”, adding that 20 homes were destroyed overnight.
The Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and warned residents not to return there.
“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 the military did not confirm this to AFP.
Of those killed in Gaza City, 17 died in an Israeli air strike on the home of the Abdul Aal family in the city’s Al-Tuffa neighbourhood, hospitals said.
Since October 2023, Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
