Trump Calls for Israel-Hamas Ceasefire

After brokering a fragile ceasefire between 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. President posted on Truth Social early Sunday.

Trump told reporters 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 a post slamming the corruption proceedings against Netanyahu. An Israeli court on Monday postponed this 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 official told the 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 on Iran’s nuclear program. Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, renewed a ceasefire push for Gaza after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran’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 official told Reuters.

Call for ceasefire comes as Israel escalates war

At the same time that Trump called for a deal, Israel continued to escalate its military bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli military ordered a 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 lives at a moment’s notice has become routine for Palestinians in Gaza over the last nearly two years of war. Humanitarian organizations have criticized Israel’s sweeping evacuation orders in the past as being unpredictable and having short deadlines that are virtually impossible for many, including the sick 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 AP reported. United Nations officials have said that nowhere in Gaza is safe. At least five people were killed in 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 Marouf told Reuters. 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 Guterres said on Friday. “Even these shrinking spaces are under threat. Bombs are falling—on tents, on families, on those with nowhere left to run.”

Roadblocks remain over a deal

In spite of Trump’s optimism, skepticism over a deal remains.

Hamas has accused Israeli leaders of purposely delaying a deal. Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi reportedly said on Telegram on Sunday that Netanyahu set “impossible conditions aimed at thwarting the possibility of reaching a ceasefire agreement and a deal on the hostages.”

Hamas has reportedly offered Israel 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 also suggested a 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 an AI-generated video on 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 Hamas reached a multi-phase ceasefire agreement in January, just as Trump was taking office. But Israel broke the 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 protesters around the world turned out over the weekend to call for an end to the war. And earlier this month, the U.N. adopted a 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 also resumed after 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,” said Einav Zangauker, the mother of one of the hostages, at the rally.