US President Donald Trump urged Hamas on Tuesday to accept a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, saying that Israel had agreed to finalise such a deal, as its forces also stepped up operations in the Palestinian territory.
Nearly 21 months of relentless Israeli bombardment have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.
The civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people today.
Trump, in a post on social media, said his representatives had met with Israeli officials about the raging conflict, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next week.
“Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise the 60-day ceasefire, during which time we will work with all parties to end the war,” Trump wrote.
He said representatives of Qatar and Egypt, mediators in the conflict, would deliver “this final proposal”.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this deal, because it will not get better — it will only get worse,” he warned.
Without directly mentioning Trump’s remarks, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said later that “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!” Saar wrote on X.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian fighters during Hamas’s 2023 attack that triggered the offensive, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.
Trump earlier on Tuesday said he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu when they meet on July 7.
The end of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran — which followed a US bombing mission on Tehran’s nuclear sites — has provided a window of opportunity for a deal, with Trump keen to add another peace agreement to a series of recent deals he has brokered.
Trump has complained he had been overlooked by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his mediating role in various conflicts, including the recent one between India and Pakistan.
Families lose multiple members as Israeli bombing continues
Trump campaigned for office as a “peacemaker” who would use his negotiating skills to quickly end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, although both conflicts are still raging five months into his presidency.
However, Israel’s bombing of Gaza continues to rage on.
AFP footage from the area showed makeshift tent structures blown apart as Palestinians picked through the wreckage, trying to salvage what was left of their belongings.
One man held a pack of nappies, asking: “Is this a weapon?”
“They came here thinking it was a safe area and they were killed … What did they do?” said Maha Abu Rizq, whose uncle was killed in the strike.
AFP images from the nearby Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis city, showed medics treating young children covered in blood. Some appeared terrified while others lay still on hospital beds in bloodied bandages and clothes.
In southern Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five members of the same family were killed in an Israeli air strike today that hit a tent housing displaced people in the coastal Al-Mawasi area.
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.
AFP photographers saw Israeli tanks deploying at the Gaza border in southern Israel and children picking through the rubble of a destroyed home in Gaza City.
Others photographed Palestinians mourning over the bodies of relatives in the city’s Al-Shifa hospital and the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it did not have enough information to comment on the specific reports, but insisted it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” in line with “international law, and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
In response to reports of deadly strikes in the north and south of the territory, the Israeli army told AFP it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities”.
Separately, it said on Tuesday morning that in recent days it had “expanded its operations to additional areas within the Gaza Strip”, claiming to have eliminated fighters and dismantled what it called “terror infrastructure sites”.
Raafat Halles, aged 39, from the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, said “air strikes and shelling have intensified over the past week” and tanks have been advancing.
“I believe that every time negotiations or a potential ceasefire are mentioned, the army escalates crimes and massacres on the ground,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
The Israeli military onslaught in response to the Hamas-led Oct 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, has killed more than 56,600 people across Gaza.
The offensive has destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system. The death toll is feared to be much higher due to thousands missing under the rubble.
Netanyahu’s US visit
Netanyahu announced he would visit Trump and senior US security officials next week, amid mounting pressure to end the devastating fighting in Gaza and bring the remaining hostages home.
Trump, while visiting a migrant detention centre in Florida, said Netanyahu “wants to end it too”.
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP the group is “ready to agree to any proposal if it will lead to an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces”.
“So far, there has been no breakthrough.”
