WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned Hamas on Monday it would be &quot;eradicated&quot; if it breaches the Gaza deal with Israel, but said he would give the Palestinian group a chance to honor the truce. Vice President JD Vance headed to Israel shortly after Trump&#39;s comments, joining two top US envoys after weekend violence threatened to wreck the fragile ceasefire. &quot;We made a deal with Hamas that they&#39;re going to be very good, they&#39;re going to behave, they&#39;re going to be nice,&quot; Trump told reporters at the White House as he hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. &quot;And if they&#39;re not, we&#39;re going to go and we&#39;re going to eradicate them, if we have to. They&#39;ll be eradicated, and they know that.&quot; Trump helped broker the Gaza deal nearly two weeks ago, but it has repeatedly come under threat as Israel accuses Hamas of stalling on handing over dead hostages, and of launching attacks. The US president has also warned the fighter group to stop public executions of rivals and alleged collaborators as it seeks to reestablish its grip on the devastated territory. Trump, however, insisted that American forces would not be involved against Hamas, saying dozens of countries that have agreed to join an international stabilization force for Gaza would &quot;love to go in.&quot; &quot;In addition, you have Israel would go in in two minutes, if I asked them to go in,&quot; Trump said. &quot;But right now, we haven&#39;t said that. We&#39;re going to give it a little chance, and hopefully there will be a little less violence. But right now, you know, they&#39;re violent people,&quot; he added. &quot;They got very rambunctious, and they did things that they shouldn&#39;t be doing, and if they keep doing it, then we&#39;re going to go in and straighten it out, and it&#39;ll happen very quickly and pretty violently.&quot; Trump said that Hamas was now far weaker, especially as regional backer Iran was now unlikely to step in on its behalf following US and Israeli strikes this year. &quot;They don&#39;t have the backing of really anybody anymore. They have to be good, and if they&#39;re not good, they&#39;ll be eradicated,&quot; Trump stressed. Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser son-in-law Jared Kushner met Netanyahu on Monday to discuss &quot;developments and updates in the region,&quot; a spokesperson for the prime minister&#39;s office said. Vance and his wife, Usha, later left Washington for Israel without commenting to reporters. They were also due to meet with Netanyahu, the prime minister&#39;s office said.

Middle East

US president warns fighter group to stop public executions of rivals; insists US forces will not be involved against Hamas.

Trump says Hamas will be 'eradicated' if group breaches Gaza deal

JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump declared the Gaza war &quot;over&quot; on Sunday as he headed to the region to host a peace summit, while Hamas prepared to release surviving hostages after two years in captivity. Under the US president&#39;s proposed roadmap, once the Palestinian fighters have handed over the hostages, Israel will begin releasing around 2,000 detainees in exchange. But negotiators were still wrangling late on Sunday over the final arrangements, with two Hamas sources telling AFP the group was insisting that Israel include seven senior Palestinian leaders on the list of those to be released. A confident Trump told reporters travelling with him that &quot;the war is over,&quot; as he took off from Washington for &quot;a very special&quot; trip. The US leader is due to arrive in Israel shortly after the expected release, and will address the Israeli parliament before heading to Egypt to host a meeting of world leaders to back his plan to end the two-year-old Gaza war and promote Middle East peace. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: &quot;Together we achieved tremendous victories, victories that amazed the whole world ... But at the same time, I must tell you, the fight is not over.&quot; &quot;This is an emotional evening, an evening of tears, an evening of joy, because tomorrow our children will return to our borders,&quot; Netanyahu said, quoting a biblical verse. Israel&#39;s army chief, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, also claimed victory. &quot;The military pressure we applied over the past two years, together with complementary diplomatic measures, constitute a victory over Hamas,&quot; Zamir said. Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Netanyahu&#39;s office, said the hostage release will begin early on Monday, with Israel &quot;expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time.&quot; A senior Israeli military official however told reporters: &quot;Unfortunately... we anticipate that not all fallen hostages will be returned tomorrow.&quot; Bedrosian earlier said an &quot;international body&quot; would be set up to locate the remains of those not returned as part of Monday&#39;s exchange. &#39;Completed all preparations&#39; &quot;Palestinian prisoners will be released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel,&quot; Bedrosian said. Two Hamas sources, meanwhile, told AFP the group was insisting Israel free seven prominent Palestinian figures as part of the exchange &mdash; at least one of whom Israel has previously refused to release. The source said that the group and its allies had nevertheless &quot;completed all preparations&quot; for handing over to Israel all the living hostages. Under the plan, Hamas is to release the remaining 47 hostages &mdash; living and dead &mdash; who were abducted on October 7, 2023, during a cross-border Hamas attack that left 1,219 people dead, and triggered Israel&#39;s devastating campaign. Hamas is also expected to hand over remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza war. Among the Palestinian prisoners to be released, 250 are security detainees, including many convicted of killing Israelis, while about 1,700 were detained by the Israeli army in Gaza during the war. After his Israel visit, Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair a summit of leaders from more than 20 countries in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. &#39;Fear and worry&#39; UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he will attend, as have leaders from Britain, Italy, Spain, France and King Abdullah of Jordan. No Israeli nor Hamas officials will be present, officials from both camps confirmed. The third day of the ceasefire saw some aid trucks cross into Gaza, but residents in Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip, said some shipments were being ransacked by starving residents in chaotic scenes that saw food parcels trampled. For Mahmud al-Muzain, a bystander, the scuffle showed that Gazans did not trust that the US-led negotiations would lead to a long-term peace. &quot;Everyone fears the war will return,&quot; he told AFP. &quot;We stockpile food out of fear and worry that the war will come back.&quot; In Israel, the mother of 25-year-old hostage Matan Zangauker described her intense longing. &quot;My emotions are immense, there are no words to describe them &mdash; for me, for us, for all of Israel, which wants the hostages home and waits to see them all return,&quot; said Einav Zangauker. &#39;A long-term truce&#39; Hamas has over the past two years suffered staggering losses including the killing of its top leaders both in Gaza and in exile. But the movement has not been crushed, and a source close to its negotiating committee told AFP on Sunday that while it would not participate in post-war Gaza governance, it will not lay down its weapons. Under the Trump plan, as Israel conducts a partial withdrawal from Gaza, it will be replaced by a multi-national force coordinated by a US-led command center in Israel. Israel&#39;s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,806 people, according to the health ministry in the territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

Under the US president's proposed roadmap, once the Palestinian fighters have handed over the hostages, Israel will begin releasing around 2,000 detainees in exchange.

Trump declares Gaza war 'over,' hostages due home

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is setting off for Israel and Egypt on Sunday to celebrate the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas and urge Middle East allies to seize the opportunity to build a durable peace in the volatile region. It&#39;s a fragile moment with Israel and Hamas only in the early stages of implementing the first phase of the Trump agreement designed to bring a permanent end to the war sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants. Trump thinks there is a narrow window to reshape the Mideast and reset long-fraught relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It is a moment, the Republican president says, that has been helped along by his administration&#39;s support of Israel&#39;s decimation of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The White House says momentum is also building because Arab and Muslim states are demonstrating a renewed focus on resolving the broader, decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in some cases, deepening relations with the United States &ldquo;I think you are going to have tremendous success and Gaza is going to be rebuilt,&rdquo; Trump said Friday. &ldquo;And you have some very wealthy countries, as you know, over there. It would take a small fraction of their wealth to do that. And I think they want to do it.&rdquo; A tenuous point in the agreementThe first phase of the ceasefire agreement calls for the release of the final 48 hostages held by Hamas, including about 20 believed to be alive; the release of hundreds of Palestinian hostages held by Israel; a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza; and a partial pullback by Israeli forces from Gaza&rsquo;s main cities. Israeli troops on Friday finished withdrawing from parts of Gaza, triggering a 72-hour countdown under the deal for Hamas to release the Israeli hostages, potentially while Trump is on the ground there. He said he expected their return to be completed on Monday or Tuesday. Trump will visit Israel first to meet with hostage families and address the Knesset, or parliament, an honor last extended to President George W. Bush during a visit in 2008. Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said Trump also was likely to meet with newly freed hostages, too. &ldquo;Knock on wood, but we feel very confident the hostages will be released and this president is actually traveling to the Middle East, likely this evening, in order to meet them and greet them in person,&rdquo; Vance told CBS&#39; &ldquo;Face the Nation.&rdquo; Trump then stops in Egypt, where he and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi will lead a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh with leaders from more than 20 countries on peace in Gaza and the broader Middle East. It is a tenuous truce and it is unclear whether the sides have reached any agreement on Gaza&rsquo;s postwar governance, the territory&#39;s reconstruction and Israel&rsquo;s demand that Hamas disarm. Negotiations over those issues could break down, and Israel has hinted it may resume military operations if its demands are not met. &ldquo;I think the chances of (Hamas) disarming themselves, you know, are pretty close to zero,&rdquo; H.R. McMaster, a national security adviser during Trump&#39;s first term, said at an event hosted by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies on Thursday. He said he thought what probably would happen in the coming months is that the Israeli military &quot;is going to have to destroy them.&quot; Israel continues to rule over millions of Palestinians without basic rights as settlements expand rapidly across the occupied West Bank. Despite growing international recognition, Palestinian statehood appears exceedingly remote because of Israel&rsquo;s opposition and actions on the ground, The war has left Israel isolated internationally and facing allegations of genocide, which it denies. International arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister are in effect, and the United Nations&#39; highest court is considering allegations of genocide brought by South Africa. Hamas has been militarily decimated and has given up its only bargaining chip with Israel by releasing the hostages. But the Islamic group is still intact and could eventually rebuild if there&rsquo;s an extended period of calm. Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would continue with its demilitarization of Hamas after the hostages are returned. &ldquo;Hamas agreed to the deal only when it felt that the sword was on its neck &mdash; and it is still on its neck,&rdquo; Netanyahu said Friday as Israel began to pull back its troops. Trump wants to expand the Abraham AccordsMuch of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and rebuilding is expected to take years. The territory&#39;s roughly 2 million residents continue to struggle in desperate conditions. Under the deal, Israel agreed to reopen five border crossings, which will help ease the flow of food and other supplies into Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine. Trump is also standing up a U.S.-led civil-military coordination center in Israel to help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into Gaza. Roughly 200 U.S. troops will help support and monitor the ceasefire deal as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and private-sector players. U.S. troops will not be sent to Gaza, Adm. Brad Cooper, the U.S. military commander for the region, said in a social media post Saturday. The White House has signaled that Trump is looking to quickly return attention to building on a first-term effort known as the Abraham Accords, which forged diplomatic and commercial ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. A permanent agreement in Gaza would help pave the path for Trump to begin talks with Saudi Arabia as well Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, toward normalizing ties with Israel, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. Such a deal with Saudi Arabia, the most powerful and wealthy Arab state, has the potential to reshape the region and boost Israel&rsquo;s standing in historic ways. But brokering such an agreement remains a heavy lift as the kingdom has said it won&rsquo;t officially recognize Israel before a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Americas

President Donald Trump departs for Israel and Egypt to celebrate the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal, push Middle East leaders toward lasting peace, and revive the Abraham Accords amid fragile postwar Gaza negotiations and ongoing regional tensions

Trump sets off for the Mideast to mark ceasefire deal

WASHINGTON: The release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas is imminent, US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday, while vowing that the Trump administration would apply all necessary pressure to ensure future stability in Gaza. &quot;It really should be any moment now,&quot; the vice president told NBC News&#39; &quot;Meet the Press&quot; when asked about the timing for the release of the hostages by Hamas. He added later on ABC&#39;s &quot;This Week&quot;: &quot;We expect to see them alive here in the next 24 hours, probably early tomorrow morning, US time, which will be later in the day, of course, in Israel.&quot; Asked on CBS&#39;s &quot;Face the Nation&quot; whether Washington is committed to continuing to apply pressure to stabilize the Middle East, Vance said: &quot;It is going to take consistent leverage and consistent pressure from the president of the United States on down.&quot; Speaking on a succession of Sunday morning talk shows, Vance also stressed that 200 American troops being deployed to Israel would be responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza and were never intended for any sort of combat role. Vance added that US troops will not be deployed on the ground in Palestinian territory. &quot;That&#39;s everything from ensuring that the Israeli troops are at the agreed-upon line, ensuring that Hamas is not attacking innocent Israelis, doing everything that they can to ensure the peace that we&#39;ve created, actually sustains and endures,&quot; Vance said on ABC. &quot;But the idea that we&#39;re going to have troops on the ground in Gaza, in Israel, that that is not our intention, that is not our plan.&quot;

US Vice President JD Vance said the release of remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas is imminent, adding that 200 U.S. troops in Israel will monitor the Gaza ceasefire but won’t take part in combat

Vance says Israel hostages could be freed 'any moment'

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said his country&nbsp;would participate in a &quot;task force&quot; to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas. &quot;We will hopefully join the task force that will monitor the implementation of the agreement on the ground,&quot; Erdogan said. Turkey, which has been closely involved in the negotiations, sent a team to the talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. The agreement, which will be signed in Egypt on Thursday, involves freeing the remaining hostages and is seen as a major step towards ending the two-year war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe. &quot;It is of great importance to urgently deliver comprehensive humanitarian aid to Gaza, exchange hostages and prisoners, and for Israel to immediately cease its attacks,&quot; Erdogan said. He also promised Turkey would help reconstruction efforts in Gaza.

Palestinians celebrate following the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan to pause the fighting, outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP)

Europe

The agreement, which will be signed in Egypt on Thursday, involves freeing the remaining hostages and is seen as a major step towards ending the two-year war.

Erdogan says Turkey to join 'task force' to monitor Gaza deal

JERUSALEM: Hamas said Tuesday it was working to overcome &quot;all obstacles&quot; as the Palestinian leaders held indirect talks with Israel aimed at ending the two-year Gaza war. &quot;The delegation of the movement participating in the current negotiations in Egypt seeks to surmount all obstacles to achieving an agreement that fulfils the aspirations of our people in Gaza,&quot; senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said in a televised speech.

Hamas said it is working to overcome all obstacles in ongoing indirect talks with Israel in Egypt, aiming to reach an agreement that meets the aspirations of the Palestinian people in Gaza after two years of war

Hamas says working to 'surmount all obstacles' in Gaza talks

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Two years after the outbreak of the Gaza war, the conflict continues to devastate civilian life, with United Nations (UN) reports highlighting widespread destruction of schools, infrastructure, and essential services across the enclave.&nbsp;Despite growing humanitarian concerns, ceasefire efforts remain stalled as Israel and Hamas struggle to bridge key differences over hostages, withdrawal terms, and long-term security guarantees. &nbsp;Widespread destructionA UN report published on May 7, 2025, found that more than 400 schools in Gaza had been directly hit. The IRDNA reported in February 2025 that 88% of the 48,987 establishments in Gaza&rsquo;s commerce and industry sector had been damaged or destroyed.&nbsp;Further, a UNOSAT report on July 8, 2025, stated that 77% of the total road network in Gaza had been damaged. According to the OCHA, as of September 9, 2025, 69% (520 out of 756) of public WASH facilities and assets were located within Israeli-militarized zones.&nbsp;The FAO also reported that as of April 2025, 83% of agricultural water wells had been damaged, worsening the humanitarian crisis.&nbsp;<img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/16bd0213-68b7-483f-8108-4ea4f8ab0166.jpg" style="width: 601px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP/File) Hostage negotiations and stalled diplomacyHostage negotiations remain at the center of diplomatic efforts. Israeli officials say 48 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with about 20 believed to be alive. Hamas has stated it will release them only in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal.&nbsp;Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all captives are freed and Hamas is disarmed, according to Israeli officials. <img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/f6e86711-505f-4ffc-bf59-d77d449fa562.jpg" style="width: 597px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-fil">In this aerial view, Palestinians check the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on September 28, 2025. (AFP/File)&nbsp;SurveillanceIn a related development, The Guardian reported that a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the commander of Israel&rsquo;s Unit 8200 led to the unit gaining access to a segregated area of Microsoft&rsquo;s Azure cloud.&nbsp;The investigation claimed this platform was later used to store and analyze recordings of millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.&nbsp;Microsoft stated that Nadella was unaware of the nature of the data and that the company was taking steps to ensure compliance with its terms of service.&nbsp;Last month, the Associated Press reported that Microsoft disabled services to an Israeli military unit after an internal review found its products had been used for mass surveillance of Palestinians. The company acknowledged selling advanced AI and cloud services during the war but said an internal review found no evidence that Azure was used to target or harm individuals. <img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/480189c0-75f6-48b3-bf47-3ded1c4cde8a.jpg" style="width: 593px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-fil">This picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli army on October 3, 2025, shows an Israeli army soldier holding a mounted machine gun in front of destroyed buildings in the vicinity of the Jordanian Field Hospital in Gaza City. (AFP/File)&nbsp;Mediation effortsInternational mediation has intensified as both Israel and Hamas express cautious support for a United States-backed plan proposing a ceasefire, hostage releases, and expanded humanitarian aid.&nbsp;However, key sticking points, such as the timeline of Israeli withdrawal, Hamas&rsquo;s disarmament, and guarantees for a lasting ceasefire, remain unresolved. Initial talks in Sharm El-Sheikh signaled some willingness to negotiate, but continued Israeli airstrikes, internal political tensions in Israel, and the complexity of hostage recovery efforts make a swift resolution unlikely.&nbsp;OutlookWhile both Israel and Hamas have voiced support for the broad principles of US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s plan, analysts caution that a comprehensive peace deal remains distant.&nbsp;As the world marks the second anniversary of the war&rsquo;s start, the likelihood of ending the Gaza conflict remains cautiously optimistic but fraught with challenges, even as global attention once again turns to the region.

Two years into the Gaza war, UN reports reveal massive civilian devastation, with 77% of Gaza’s infrastructure damaged. Ceasefire and hostage talks remain deadlocked as Israel resists withdrawal and Hamas demands guarantees, despite renewed mediation

Two years on: War on Gaza persists amid rising civilian toll

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was &quot;pretty sure&quot; a Gaza peace deal was possible and said Hamas was agreeing to &quot;very important&quot; issues as talks with Israel started. &quot;I have red lines, if certain things aren&#39;t met, we&#39;re not going to do it,&quot; Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he had preconditions, including Hamas agreeing to disarm. &quot;But I think we&#39;re doing very well, and I think Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important.&quot; Trump said he was optimistic about the chances of a deal as delegations from Hamas and Israel began indirect talks in Egypt on ending the war under his 20-point plan. &quot;I think we&#39;re going to have a deal. It&#39;s a hard thing for me to say that when for years and years they&#39;ve been trying to have a deal,&quot; Trump said. &quot;We&#39;re going to have a Gaza deal, I&#39;m pretty sure, yeah.&quot; Trump also dismissed a report that he had accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being negative about the talks, saying that Netanyahu had been &quot;very positive about the deal.&quot;

US president says he is optimistic about the chances of a deal as delegations from Hamas and Israel begin indirect talks in Egypt on ending the Gaza war under his 20-point plan.

Trump says Hamas 'agreeing to things that are very important'

CAIRO: Delegations from Hamas and Israel on Monday began indirect talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on ending the nearly two-year war in Gaza, Egyptian state-linked media reported. Al-Qahera News, which is linked to state intelligence, said the delegations &quot;are discussing preparing ground conditions for the release of detainees and prisoners&quot;, in line with a proposal from US President Donald Trump to halt hostilities. &quot;Egyptian and Qatari mediators are working with both sides to establish a mechanism&quot; for the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, they added. Behind closed doors and under tight security, negotiators will speak through mediators shuttling back and forth, only weeks after Israel tried to kill Hamas&#39;s lead negotiators in a strike on Qatar. The Hamas delegation, led by top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya who survived the attack in Doha, held a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials ahead of the talks, according to an Egyptian security source. This round of negotiations, launched on the eve of the second anniversary of Hamas&#39;s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war, &quot;may last for several days&quot;, said a Palestinian source close to Hamas&#39;s leadership. &quot;We expect the negotiations to be difficult and complex, given the occupation&#39;s intentions to continue its war of extermination,&quot; he told AFP. Trump, whose envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Egypt, has urged negotiators to &quot;move fast&quot; to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday. At least seven Palestinians were killed in the latest Israeli air strikes, according to Mahmud Basal, spokesman for Gaza&#39;s civil defence agency. AFP footage showed explosions in the Gaza Strip, with plumes of smoke rising over the skyline, even after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel must stop bombing the territory. &#39;Require several days&#39;Both Hamas and Israel have responded positively to Trump&#39;s proposal, but reaching an agreement on the details is set to be a herculean task. The plan envisages the disarmament of Hamas, which the militant group is unlikely to accept. It also provides for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but Israel&#39;s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to redeploy troops &quot;deep inside&quot; the territory while securing the release of hostages. According to the Palestinian source, the initial hostage-prisoner exchange will &quot;require several days, depending on field conditions related to Israeli withdrawals, the cessation of bombardment and the suspension of all types of air operations&quot;. Previous rounds of negotiations have also stalled over the names of Palestinian prisoners the Islamist group proposed for release. Negotiations will look to &quot;determine the date of a temporary truce&quot;, a Hamas official said, as well as create conditions for a first phase of the plan, in which 47 hostages held in Gaza are to be released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Mirjana Spoljaric, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has coordinated previous exchanges, said its teams were standing at the ready &quot;to help bring hostages and detainees back to their families&quot;. The ICRC said it was ready to facilitate aid access, which must resume &quot;at full capacity&quot; and be distributed safely across the territory, where the UN has declared a famine. &#39;MOVE FAST&#39;Posting on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump praised &quot;positive discussions with Hamas&quot; and allies around the world including Arab and Muslim nations. &quot;I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,&quot; he wrote. On Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised Trump&#39;s plan saying it offered &quot;the right path to lasting peace and stability&quot;. A Palestinian source close to Hamas said it would halt its military operations in parallel with Israel stopping its bombardment and withdrawing its troops from Gaza City. Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir warned if the negotiations failed, then the military would &quot;return to fighting&quot; in Gaza. Militants seized 251 hostages during their October 7, 2023 attack, 47 of whom are still in Gaza. Of those, the Israeli military says 25 are dead. According to Trump&#39;s plan, in return for the hostages, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences and more than 1,700 detainees from Gaza taken during the war. Hamas has insisted it should have a say in the territory&#39;s future, though Trump&#39;s roadmap stipulates that it and other factions &quot;not have any role in the governance of Gaza&quot;. Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a transitional authority headed by Trump himself. &quot;We hope Trump will pressure Netanyahu and force him to stop the war,&quot; said Ahmad Barbakh, from the Al-Mawasi area. &quot;We want the prisoner exchange deal to be completed quickly so that Israel has no excuse to continue the war.&quot; Hamas&#39;s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Israel&#39;s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,160 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

Hamas and Israel began indirect ceasefire and hostage-exchange talks in Egypt, mediated by Cairo and Qatar under Trump’s peace proposal. The Red Cross confirmed readiness to assist, as strikes in Gaza continued despite ongoing negotiations

Indirect talks on ending Gaza war begin in Sharm El-Sheikh: Egypt media

JERUSALEM: Israel&#39;s military chief warned on Sunday that if negotiations to secure the release of hostages fail to achieve their aims, the military will return to fighting in Gaza. &quot;There is no ceasefire (at the moment), but the operational situation has changed, with the political level converting the tools and achievements you have gained through military action into political gains,&quot; Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir told a group of soldiers deployed in Gaza. &quot;If the political effort fails, we will return to fighting,&quot; he added, according to a statement issued by the military.

 Israeli soldiers take position along the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP)

Israel’s military chief warned that fighting in Gaza will resume if hostage negotiations fail, emphasizing that current political efforts aim to convert military achievements into diplomatic gains amid an uneasy halt in combat operations.

Articles tagged with "Gaza Deal"