Trump pledges more on Gaza peace plan as Israeli strikes kill dozens
US President Donald Trump has said his administration will soon have more to say on a plan for Gaza – which may include a new push for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the release of hostages and an influx of aid to Palestinians.
'You'll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours,' Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
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It came after officials in Gaza said Israeli strikes across the region killed at least 92 people, including women, children and a local journalist, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign in the strip, with the war now entering its 20th month.
Two Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in central Gaza killed at least 33 people and wounded 86, including several children, though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to health officials.
Wednesday's strikes included two attacks on a crowded market area in Gaza City, health officials said.
The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children.
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It was the fifth time since the war began that the school has been struck.
An early morning strike on another school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets in other areas killed at least 16 others.
A makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp in central Gaza. Paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
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Israel blames Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, including schools.
The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.
Israel is also calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan.
Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after Mr Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month.
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Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
Any escalation of fighting would be likely to drive up the death toll.
And with Israel already controlling some 50% of Gaza, increasing its hold on the territory, for an indefinite amount of time, could open up the potential for a military occupation, which would raise questions about how Israel plans to have the territory governed, especially at a time when it is considering how to implement Mr Trump's vision to take over Gaza.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. The officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.
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Mr Trump stunned many in Israel on Tuesday when he declared that only 21 of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza were still alive.
Israel insists that figure stands at 24, although an Israeli official said there was 'serious concern' for the lives of three captives.
US president Donald Trump stunned many in Israel when he said only 21 of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza were still alive (Evan Vucci/AP)
The official said there had been no sign of life from these three, whom the official did not identify.
He said that until there was evidence proving otherwise, the three were considered to be alive.
The official said the families of the captives were updated on these developments.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the families of the captives, demanded from Israel's government that if there was 'new information being kept from us, give it to us immediately'.
It also called for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the war in Gaza until all hostages were returned.
'This is the most urgent and important national mission,' it said on a post on X.
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)
Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group in mid-March, it has unleashed strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds and has captured swaths of territory.
Before the truce ended, Israel halted all humanitarian aid into the territory, including food, fuel and water, setting off what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in 19 months of war.
Key interlocutors Qatar and Egypt said on Wednesday that mediation efforts were 'ongoing and consistent'.
But Israel and Hamas remain far apart on how they see the war ending.
Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas's governing and military capabilities are dismantled, something it has failed to do in 19 months of war.
Hamas says it is prepared to release all of the hostages for an end to the war and a long-term truce with Israel.
Recent Israeli airstrikes targeted a power plant and Sanaa Airport in Sanaa, Yemen (Osamah Abdulrahman/AP)
Against the backdrop of the plans to intensify the campaign in Gaza, fighting has also escalated between Israel and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Houthis fired a ballistic missile earlier this week that landed on the grounds of Israel's main international airport. Israel responded with a series of airstrikes over two days, whose targets included the airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
The Houthis have been striking Israel and targets in a main Red Sea shipping route since the war began in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump said the US would halt a nearly two-months-long campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, after the rebel group agreed not to target US ships.
The Israeli official said the deal came as a surprise to Israel and that it was concerned by it because of what it meant for the continuation of hostilities between it and the Houthis.
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"When the motion was first put forward back in November, I proposed a counter motion that Brent should twin with a city or town possibly in Israel which had a mixed Jewish, Arab, Christian community."I'm not opposed to twinning with any particular cities, but I think Nablus is particularly dangerous." On Tuesday, the Israeli army launched a raid on the city, killing two Palestinians according to the Palestinian ministry of health. The Israeli army said it was undertaking a counterterrorism ministers have recently approved new Jewish settlements which are widely seen as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes said twinning was also a question of exchange visits. "In other words, we will go to them and stay with them and take part in their programme and they can come to us and take part in our programmes but it would be very dangerous for us to go there."The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel currently advises against all but essential travel to Nablus. Motasem Zaid, a Palestinian engineer who lives in Brent, said he was overwhelmed by the support and solidarity he was shown by people in the believed twinning was about forming a long-term relationship that would last beyond the conflict."It can be and it will be hopefully beneficial for both communities economically, culturally, even with the exchange between the educational institutions between the two communities," he said."The twinning is not meant to exclude anyone. It's meant to do the opposite, it's meant to include everyone."It's not going to cost the council or the taxpayer anything. So to me, if I'm taking this solidarity part out of the equation, it's a risk-free investment."Jewish resident Ian Collier said the twinning was not started the petition against the decision and is calling on the council to reconsider. "Everybody that I spoke to was quite disgusted, as I was, about the idea and the concept," he said."We felt it was just totally out of character with what a council should be doing for its residents."We don't believe it's in the interest of some elements of the community and it does put a number of people in the community at physical harm."At the last count, there were 3,700 Jews living in Brent. I believe that each and everyone of them will feel more threatened because of any particular influence that people in Brent, or worse still the children of people in Brent, receive from having correspondence or interaction with the people of Nablus." Retired GP Jonathan Fluxman, who represents a different Jewish voice in Brent, said twinning would foster understanding."We've heard the stories over and over again," he said. "Othering of Palestinians, of Arabs, of people from the Middle East. 'They're not like us. They don't share our values'. "I think that's nonsense. We are all human beings. We all share a common humanity, and what we need to do is interact with each other and understand each other."There's been a lot of talk about Jewish fears of safety and being made uncomfortable. I have no sense of fear about this." According to the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) the UK has approximately 2,000 twinning links, which are legal or social agreements between two cities, towns or villages, to boost trade and tourism, promote peace and cultural exchange. The LGIU said such arrangements were "good for fostering business connections and mutually beneficial economic partnerships".Brent has also been twinned with South Dublin County Council since 1997.
