'Make the deal': Trump calls for a ceasefire on the war in Gaza

1News

17 hours ago

US President Donald Trump overnight has urged progress in ceasefire talks in the 20-month war in Gaza, as Israel and Hamas appeared to move closer to an agreement.
Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was set to travel to Washington this week for talks on a ceasefire, an Israeli official said. Plans were being made for Netanyahu to travel there in the coming weeks, a sign there may be movement on a deal.
Netanyahu was meeting with his security Cabinet on Sunday evening, the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that hadn't been finalised.
"MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!" Trump wrote on social media early Sunday. Trump raised expectations on Saturday for a deal, saying there could be an agreement within the next week.
Trump has repeatedly called for Israel and Hamas to end the war. An eight-week ceasefire was reached just as he took office earlier this year, but Israel resumed the war in March after trying to get Hamas to accept new terms on next steps.
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Some Palestinians greeted the possibility of a new truce with scepticism after watching the last ceasefire shattered.
"Since the beginning of the war, they have been promising us something like this: Release the hostages and we will stop the war," said Abdel Hadi Al-Hour. "They did not stop the war."
Trump slams Netanyahu trial
Trump also doubled down on his criticism of the legal proceedings against Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, calling it "a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem. (Source: Associated Press)
In the post on Saturday evening, Trump said the trial interfered with ceasefire talks, saying Netanyahu "is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back".
Last week, Trump called for the trial to be cancelled. It was a dramatic interference by an ally in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state. It unnerved many in Israel, despite Trump's popularity there.
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The trial has repeatedly been postponed at Netanyahu's request, citing security and diplomatic developments. On Sunday, the court agreed to call off two more days of testimony by him scheduled this week.
Major sticking point
Talks between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly faltered over a major sticking point — whether the war should end as part of any ceasefire agreement.
Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi accused Netanyahu of stalling progress on a deal, saying on social media that the Israeli leader insists on a temporary agreement that would free just 10 of the hostages. About 50 hostages remained, with less than half believed to be alive.
Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri said that "Hamas was the only obstacle to ending the war", without addressing Merdawi's claim.
During a visit on Sunday to to Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet, Netanyahu said that the Israel-Iran war and subsequent ceasefire have opened many opportunities: "First of all, to rescue the hostages. Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both tasks."
Hamas said it was willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war in Gaza. Israel rejected that offer, saying it would agree to end the war if Hamas surrendered, disarmed and went into exile, something that the group refused.
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The war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1200 people and took roughly 250 hostage.
Gaza's Health Ministry on Sunday said that another 88 people have been killed by Israeli fire over the past 24 hours, raising the war's toll among Palestinians to 56,500. The ministry, which operated under the Hamas government, didn't distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, but said more than half of the dead were women and children.
Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip mourn their deaths at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. (Source: Associated Press)
The war has displaced most of Gaza's population, often multiple times, obliterated much of the territory's urban landscape and left people overwhelmingly reliant on outside aid, which Israel has limited since the end of the latest ceasefire.
Fewer than half of Gaza's hospitals were even partly functional, and more than 4000 children needed medical evacuation abroad, a new UN humanitarian assessment said.
"We are exhausted, we are tired. We hope to God that the war will end," said one Palestinian, Mahmoud Wadi.
New Gaza evacuations ordered
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The Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians in large swaths of northern Gaza, home to hundreds of thousands of people who had returned during the ceasefire earlier this year.
Colonel Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on social media. It included multiple neighbourhoods in eastern and northern Gaza City, as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp.
The military would expand its escalating attacks westward to the city's centre, calling for people to move toward the Muwasi area in southern Gaza, Adraee said.
An Israeli military offensive aimed to move Palestinians to southern Gaza, so forces could more freely operate to combat militants. Rights groups said their movement would amount to forcible displacement.