Trump orders Israel to stop bombing Gaza after Hamas agrees to release hostages

Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip: US President Donald Trump has ordered Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan to end the two-year war and return all the remaining hostages taken during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that started it.

Hamas said it was willing to release the hostages and hand over power to other Palestinians, but that other aspects of the plan require further consultations among Palestinians. Senior Hamas officials suggested there were still major disagreements that required further negotiations.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was preparing for an “immediate implementation” of the first stage of Trump’s Gaza plan, apparently referring to the release of hostages. But his office said in a statement that Israel was committed to ending the war based on principles it has set out before, without addressing potential gaps with Hamas.

Israeli media, however, reported that the country’s political echelon had instructed the military to reduce offensive activity in Gaza.

Israel had earlier accepted Trump’s plan in its entirety. Hamas’ response to the plan fell short of Netanyahu’s demands that the group surrender and disarm.

But Trump welcomed the Hamas statement on Friday (Saturday AEST), saying: “I believe they are ready for a lasting peace.”

“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out,” he wrote on social media.

Residents said Israeli tanks bombarded Talateeni Street, a major artery in the heart of Gaza City, after Trump’s message to Israel to stop. Witnesses said Israeli military planes also intensified bombing in Gaza City in the hour after Hamas issued its response to Trump’s plan, hitting several houses in the Remal neighbourhood.

Hamas said in its response to the Trump plan that aspects of the proposal touching on the future of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rights should be decided on the basis of a “unanimous Palestinian stance” reached with other factions and based on international law.

The statement also made no mention of Hamas disarming, a key Israeli demand included in Trump’s proposal.

Trump appears keen to deliver on pledges to end the war and return dozens of hostages ahead of Tuesday’s second anniversary of the attack.

Key mediators Egypt and Qatar welcomed the latest developments, and Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said they would “continue discussions on the plan”.

The main organisation representing the families of Israeli hostages said Trump’s demand to halt the fighting was “essential to prevent serious and irreversible harm to the hostages”. It called on Netanyahu “to immediately begin efficient and swift negotiations to bring all our hostages home”.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he urged “all parties to seize the opportunity to bring the tragic conflict in Gaza to an end”. French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media that “the release of all hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza are within reach!”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he welcomed the progress on Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, and called on Hamas to agree to the plan and release the hostages without delay.

“Australia will continue to support efforts to end the war and work towards a just and sustainable two-state solution,” he said.

Trump’s plan would end the fighting and return hostages

Earlier, Trump had warned that Hamas must agree to the deal by Sunday evening, threatening an even greater military onslaught.

“If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,” Trump wrote on Friday on social media. “THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”

Under the plan, which Trump unveiled earlier this week alongside Netanyahu, Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages – about 20 of them believed to be alive, within three days. It would also give up power and disarm.

In return, Israel would halt its offensive and withdraw from much of the territory, release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and allow an influx of humanitarian aid and eventual reconstruction. Plans to relocate much of Gaza’s population to other countries would be shelved.

The territory of some 2 million Palestinians would be placed under international governance, overseen by Trump himself and former British prime minister Tony Blair. The plan provides no path for eventual reunification with the Israeli-occupied West Bank in a future Palestinian state.

Palestinians long for an end to the war, but many view this and previous US proposals as strongly favouring Israel.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk, who is based outside Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Friday that Trump’s proposal “cannot be implemented without negotiations”.

The Hamas statement had said it was willing to return all remaining hostages according to the plan’s “formula”, apparently referring to an exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

It also reiterated its longstanding openness to handing power over to a politically independent Palestinian body.

But Abu Marzouk said it might be difficult for Hamas to release all the hostages within 72 hours because it could take days or weeks to locate the remains of some of the captives.

Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Araby television that Hamas would refuse foreign administration of the Gaza Strip and that the entry of foreign forces would be “unacceptable”.

US, Israel seek to pressure Hamas

Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March. It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for 2½ months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territory.

Experts determined that Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it. An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.

Trump wrote that most of Hamas’ fighters were “surrounded and militarily trapped, just waiting for me to give the word, ‘go’, for their lives to be quickly extinguished. As for the rest, we know where and who you are, and you will be hunted down, and killed.”

Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.

Hamas has held firm to its position that it will only release the remaining hostages – its sole bargaining chip and potential human shields – in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu has rejected those terms, saying Hamas must surrender and disarm.

Second anniversary approaches

Thousands of Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, attacking army bases, farming communities and an outdoor music festival, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted 251 others, most of them since released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says women and children make up about half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the UN and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

The offensive has displaced about 90 per cent of Gaza’s population, often multiple times, and left much of the territory uninhabitable.

The Biden and Trump administrations have tried to end the fighting and have hostages returned, while providing extensive military and diplomatic support to Israel.

AP, Reuters

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