Afterbrokeringafragile ceasefirebetween Israel and Iran, Donald Trump is urging Israel and Hamas to make a deal that would stop the 20-month-long war in Gaza that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and over a thousand Israelis.
“MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!” the U.S. Presidentpostedon Truth Social early Sunday.
Trumptoldreporters on Friday that an agreement could be reached within the next week. On Saturday evening Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back,” in apostslamming the corruption proceedings against Netanyahu. An Israeli court on Mondaypostponedthis week’s hearings in Netanyahu’s trial after he made a request based on classified diplomatic and security reasons.
“How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,” Trump wrote. “This travesty of ‘Justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations.”
Read More:Trump Tries to ‘Save’ Netanyahu as Israeli PM Faces Challenges at Home
An Israeli officialtoldthe Associated Press that Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Netanyahu, will visit Washington this week for ceasefire talks. Netanyahu met with his security Cabinet on Sunday evening and plans are being made for him to visit Washington in coming weeks, the official said.
Trump’s shift in focus towards Gaza comes after Iran and Israel agreed to a tenuous ceasefire on June 23, ending the so-called “12 Day War” ignited by Israel’s attack onIran’s nuclear program. Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, renewed a ceasefire push for Gaza after the U.S. and IsraelbombedIran’s nuclear facilities. Hamas has told mediators that it is ready to resume talks but reiterated that any deal must include an end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a Hamas officialtoldReuters.
At the same time that Trump called for a deal, Israel continued to escalate its military bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli militaryordereda mass evacuation of Palestinians in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people live in eastern and northern Gaza City and the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Israeli Defense Forces’ attacks will expand westward to Gaza City center, the order said. People are ordered to evacuate to Mawasi in southern Gaza, which Israel has designated as a humanitarian area.
Uprooting their livesat a moment’s notice has become routine for Palestinians in Gaza over the last nearly two years of war.Humanitarian organizationshavecriticizedIsrael’ssweeping evacuation ordersin the past as being unpredictable and having short deadlines that arevirtually impossiblefor many, including thesick and disabled. On Sunday, Palestinians in Gaza City were yet again forced to load their children and essentials onto donkey carts before the military’s attacks, the APreported. United Nations officials have said thatnowhere in Gaza is safe. At least five people werekilledin an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis near Mawasi, the designated safe area, over the weekend, medics said.
“A month ago, they told us to go to Al-Mawasi and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” Palestinian Zeyad Abu MarouftoldReuters. Three of his children were killed and a fourth wounded in the airstrike, he said.
“Families have been displaced again and again—and are now confined to less than one-fifth of Gaza’s land,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterressaidon Friday. “Even these shrinking spaces are under threat. Bombs are falling—on tents, on families, on those with nowhere left to run.”
In spite of Trump’s optimism, skepticism over a deal remains.
Hamas has accused Israeli leaders of purposely delaying a deal. Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawireportedly saidon Telegram on Sunday that Netanyahu set “impossible conditions aimed at thwarting the possibility of reaching a ceasefire agreement and a deal on the hostages.”
Hamashas reportedly offeredIsrael a deal that includes the release of all hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israel’s military from Gaza and an end to the war. But Mardawi said Netanyahu has insisted on a temporary agreement that releases only 10 hostages. “Netanyahu lies when he claims he is not involved in choosing the names of the hostages,” Mardawi wrote. “He does not want a deal.”
Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri did not address Mardawi’s claims but said, “Hamas was the only obstacle to ending the war,” according to the AP. Israel has said it will only agree to end the war in exchange for the full dismantlement and exile of Hamas.
While Trump has repeatedly urged a ceasefire in Gaza, he’s alsosuggesteda U.S. takeover that turns the territory into “a freedom zone” and proposed that Jordan and Egypt take in Palestinians as part of a “clean out” of the Gaza Strip.
In February, Trump said the U.S. could take a “long-term ownership position” over Gaza, “level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.” That month, he also shared anAI-generated videoon Truth Social of “Trump Gaza,” showing a reconstructed Gaza Strip with skyscrapers, luxury cars, and Trump drinking by a pool with Netanyahu.
Even if a deal is reached, it’s unclear whether it will last. Israel and Hamasreacheda multi-phaseceasefire agreementin January, just as Trump was taking office. But Israelbrokethe ceasefire in March when it launched surprise airstrikes on Gaza before declaring that it was resuming the war.
Since then, pressure has been mounting on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, both from within and outside Israel.Pro-Palestinian protestersaround the worldturned outover the weekend tocallfor an end to the war. And earlier this month, the U.N.adopteda resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire, with Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya saying that it is the international community’s responsibility to stop the “slaughter” in Gaza.
Protests in Israel alsoresumedafter a two-week pause during the Israel-Iran war, with demonstrators demanding a deal that would free the hostages still in Gaza. “There’s a deal on the table and what prevents it is Netanyahu's refusal to end the war,”saidEinav Zangauker, the mother of one of the hostages, at the rally.
Earlier this month, former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barakwrotein a TIME essay calling for Netanyahu to back a Trump-brokered ceasefire: “In the coming few days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face a defining choice between a politically motivated ‘war of deception’ in Gaza and a deal to release all hostages while ending the war. He must choose between his extreme-right ministers—Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich—or aligning with Donald Trump.”
Netanyahusaidat the Sunday security meeting that “many opportunities have opened up” after Israel’s “victory” in Iran, and for one of the first times he appeared to prioritize hostage exchange over the defeat of Hamas, potentially signaling appetite for a ceasefire deal: “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will achieve both tasks.”
