Former U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly decided to pursue peace in the Middle East — on his terms — and following his involvement in Iran-Israel tensions, his next target appears to be Palestine and the ongoing war that has ravaged the region for over 21 months. On Tuesday night, Trump claimed that Israel had agreed to finalize terms for a two-month ceasefire with Hamas, while simultaneously urging Hamas to accept the deal.
Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its military operations in Gaza. “Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize a 60-day ceasefire, during which we will work with all parties to end the war,” said Trump after a meeting between American and Israeli officials in Washington, which he described as productive. He also urged Hamas to accept the ‘final’ proposal, clarifying it would be conveyed through Qatar and Egypt, countries mediating the indirect negotiations between the Palestinian Islamist movement and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas accepts this agreement because the situation will improve — it will not get worse,” added the U.S. president, typing the last five words in capital letters, as he often does for emphasis.
No reaction has yet come from Hamas. “We are willing to accept any proposal if it leads to the end of the war,” stated Taher al-Nounou, a representative of the Palestinian Islamist movement, earlier on Tuesday before Trump’s comments.
**Next Steps**
Trump is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington next week and announced plans to be ‘strict’ with him to ensure a ceasefire agreement. Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer was in the U.S. capital yesterday for meetings with officials at the White House.
Residents of Gaza describe nearly non-stop gunfire and explosions. “I have the impression that the Israeli army intensifies the massacres on the ground when negotiations or ceasefire talks arise,” said 39-year-old Rafat Hales. He hides when Israeli tanks, often accompanied by construction equipment, patrol the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. “We leave when the tanks approach and return once they’ve gone, as there’s danger everywhere,” he explained.
The Israeli military announced yesterday that its air force struck more than 140 ‘terror targets’ within 24 hours to ‘support ground forces,’ destroying tunnels spanning approximately three kilometers allegedly used by Hamas fighters. It also emphasized expanding operations into new areas of the Gaza Strip.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent expressed deep concern over the military escalation. Gaza’s civil defense reported at least 26 deaths on Tuesday from airstrikes or Israeli military fire, including 16 people waiting for aid distribution centers to open. When questioned by AFP, the Israeli military said its troops fired warning shots to disperse suspects, adding that it had no reports of injuries from those shots.
Given restrictions imposed by Israel on media access in Gaza and the inability to independently verify casualty figures amid the war, AFP cannot independently confirm the tolls reported by local authorities.
Almost 170 international NGOs called yesterday for an end to the new humanitarian aid delivery system managed since late May by the Humanitarian Aid Foundation for Gaza (GHF), an opaquely funded organization supported by Israel and the U.S.
Meanwhile, doctors warn of rising meningitis cases among children as diseases spread under catastrophic conditions and shortages plague Gaza’s hospitals. Large-scale Israeli military retaliatory operations have cost at least 56,640 Palestinian lives, mostly civilians, according to the latest data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, considered reliable by the UN.