Trump calls for a ceasefire deal on the war in Gaza as signs of progress emerge

Tel Aviv: US President Donald Trump has pushed again for Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire over the 20-month war in Gaza, as the Israeli military ordered the mass evacuation of large swathes of northern Gaza and looked to escalate attacks into Gaza City.

“MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!” Trump wrote on social media on Sunday, a day after criticising legal proceedings against Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, calling them “a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT”.

US President Donald Trump departs Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on Saturday. Credit: AP

Trump raised expectations on Friday for a deal, saying there could be an agreement within the next week.

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, and plans were being made for Netanyahu to travel there in 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.

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.

Displaced Palestinians flee Jabaliya after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders in Gaza City on Sunday.Credit: AP

Some Palestinians greeted the possibility of a new truce with scepticism, having watched the last ceasefire shatter.

“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.”

New Gaza evacuations ordered

The new evacuation orders in northern Gaza cover neighbourhoods in eastern and northern Gaza City, as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Northern Gaza is home to hundreds of thousands of people who had returned during the ceasefire earlier this year.

Children help carry possessions as residents flee Jabaliya on Sunday.Credit: AP

An Israeli military offensive aims to move Palestinians to southern Gaza, so forces can more freely operate to combat militants. Rights groups say their movement would amount to forcible displacement.

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Colonel Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on social media, and said the military will expand its escalating attacks westward to the city’s centre, calling for people to move towards the Muwasi area in southern Gaza.

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 remain, 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 Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, Netanyahu said 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.”

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in April.Credit: AP

Hamas says it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war in Gaza. Israel rejects that offer, saying it will agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the group refuses.

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 about 250 hostage.

Gaza’s Health Ministry on Sunday said 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 operates under the Hamas government, doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, but it says more than half of the dead are women and children.

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The war has displaced most of Gaza’s population, often several 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 are even partly functional, and more than 4000 children need medical evacuation abroad, a new United Nations humanitarian assessment says.

“We are exhausted, we are tired. We hope to God that the war will end,” said one Palestinian, Mahmoud Wadi.

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