At least 70 Palestinians, including two children, have been killed in strikes hours after US President Donald Trump ordered Israel to halt bombardment of Gaza following Hamas's positive response to a 20-point plan to end the war, local authorities said on Saturday.
Israel struck a house in Gaza city and a tent where displaced people were sheltering in the southern area of Khan Younis, official news agency Wafa reported.
“It was a very violent night, during which the [Israeli army] carried out dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza city and other areas in the Strip, despite President Trump's call to halt the bombing,” civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told AFP on Saturday. He added that Israel destroyed 20 homes.
Israel said it is still carrying out a military offensive in Gaza city, and the army urged people who had fled not to return. Lt Col Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military's Arabic language spokesman, said the north of Wadi Gaza “remains a dangerous combat zone”.
“Staying in this area poses a significant risk, and therefore Rashid Street remains open for you to move south,” he said in a post on X. Israeli forces “are still surrounding Gaza city, where attempting to return to it poses an extreme danger,” he added.
Israel had escalated its advance into Gaza city over the past month, ordering one million people – half of the Strip's entire population – to leave. Many, unable to due to security and financial reasons, remained in their homes and tents. Israel said it would categorise all those who remained as “terrorists”.
Hamas on Friday submitted a generally positive response to the US peace proposal for Gaza, and agreed to release all living and dead Israeli hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Saturday said Israel is preparing for the “immediate implementation” of the first step of Mr Trump's plan for the release of hostages.
Shortly after, Israeli media reported that the country's political echelon had instructed the military to reduce offensive activity in Gaza.
The Israeli military chief of staff told forces in a statement to advance readiness for the implementation of the first phase of Mr Trump’s plan, without mentioning whether there would be a reduction of military activity in Gaza.
Hamas said it is prepared to enter into negotiations to iron out the details of the agreement.
After the group issued a statement addressing his proposal, Mr Trump said he believes Hamas is ready for peace.
“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly!” he wrote.
In a video released later on Friday, Mr Trump thanked the countries that worked on the peace plan, naming Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.
“This is a big day,” he said from the Oval Office of the White House. “We'll see how it all turns out; we have to get the final word down in concrete.”
He added that everyone was going to be “treated fairly”.
Egypt to host Palestinian talks
Two Hamas officials told The National on Saturday that details of Mr Trump's plan to stop Gaza's war will be discussed in Cairo, after the group agreed to the road map.
They also said that Egypt informed the militant group that it will be hosting a Palestinian national dialogue to formulate a unified stance on the future of Gaza.
"The ball is in [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s court. We have made it clear that we agree to Trump’s plan, and the details of the ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal will be discussed in Cairo within the framework of Egyptian mediation," said one of the officials.
"Cairo will announce the date of a Palestinian national conference as an expression of Hamas’s and the Arabs’ commitment to ending the war and setting a national framework for Gaza’s future and its administration," he added.
A second official said that the group did not consider Mr Trump’s plan as a single package, to be accepted or rejected in its entirety.
“We approached the plan according to what serves the interests of the Palestinian people, and Hamas responded to the questions that were directed to it as Hamas," he said.
"Therefore, some points require the approval of ‘all the Palestinian people and factions,’ such as the clause on administering Gaza. It is the people who decide who stays in Gaza and who leaves, and Hamas is a partner in that.”
He said the real test will be the Israeli army’s implementation of the agreement on the ground in the coming hours.
The Palestinian Resistance Factions also called for all those involved to take steps towards completing the agreement. The coalition urged the Palestinian Authority to “fulfil its duties and obligations” immediately, “including holding an urgent national meeting to discuss the implementation mechanisms related to the assumption of control of the Gaza Strip by an independent Palestinian body”.
