Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a senior envoy are heading to Egypt to begin ceasefire negotiations, the White House has said, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hoped to bring all remaining hostages home in the coming days.
A White House official said the US president was sending his envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, to Egypt on Saturday to finalise the technical details of a hostage release and discuss a lasting ceasefire deal a day after Hamas said it was ready to free hostages under Trump’s plan to end the two-year-old war. In an interview, Trump said “we are very close” to reaching an agreement.
Egypt will also host delegations from Israel and Hamas on Monday to discuss the proposed exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, the country’s foreign ministry said.
The talks come a month after Israel derailed ceasefire negotiations by launching an extraordinary airstrike on Hamas negotiators in Qatar that killed six people, although not its targets.
Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, according to local health officials, despite Trump’s demand that Israel stop bombing in response to Hamas’s declaration.
At least 17 were killed, mostly women and children, in an Israeli attack on a home in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City on Saturday evening, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Another 20 were missing under the rubble and dozens were injured, it reported.
Earlier in the day Israeli drones targeted a gathering of people near a bakery in central Gaza City, killing dozens, Wafa reported, while at least six Palestinian civilians, including two children, were killed in separate Israeli strikes on a house in Gaza City and a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi, which Israel has previously designated a “safe zone”.
Hamas said in a statement that “the continuation of the occupation’s bombing and massacres exposes Netanyahu’s lies about reducing military operations against civilians”.
Earlier in the day, Israeli army radio had reported that operations in Gaza would be reduced to “the minimum”, with troops meant only to carry out “defensive” strikes, while Trump said in a Truth Social post that he appreciated Israel’s having “temporarily stopped the bombing”.
Related: ‘I feel like we are in a trap’: Gaza residents hopeful but wary of Trump’s plan
In the same post the US president warned he would “not tolerate delay” from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly towards a deal “or else all bets will be off”.
Netanyahu meanwhile said in a televised statement on Saturday, “I hope that in the coming days we will be able to bring back all our hostages … during the Sukkot holidays”, referring to the Jewish festival that begins on Monday and runs for one week.
He also insisted in his remarks that “Hamas will be disarmed … either diplomatically via Trump’s plan or militarily by us”.
Hamas had drawn a welcoming response from Trump on Friday by saying it accepted certain key parts of his 20-point peace proposal, including ending the war, Israel’s withdrawal, and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian captives.
But the group left some issues subject to further negotiation, as well as questions unanswered, such as whether it would be willing to disarm, a key demand from Israel.
Trump posted later on Saturday: “After negotiations, Israel has agreed to the initial withdrawal line, which we have shown to, and shared with, Hamas.” He said that once Hamas agrees to it, a ceasefire would take effect, “the Hostages and Prisoner Exchange will begin, and we will create the conditions for the next phase of withdrawal”. He did not elaborate.
Separately, Trump said in an interview with Axios on Saturday that “we are very close” to a deal in Gaza and that was he pushing to finalize an agreement between Israel and Hamas in the coming days.
The US president recounted a conversation he had with the Israeli prime minister as the proposal took place.
“I said: ‘Bibi [Netanyahu], this is your chance for victory.’ He was fine with it,” Trump told Axios. “He’s got to be fine with it. He has no choice. With me, you got to be fine.”
Trump told Axios: “We had great receptivity for our plan – every country of the world in favor. Bibi is in favor. Hamas went a long way – they want to do it. Now we will need to close it.”
He said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, had been “very helpful” in pressing Hamas to agree to release hostages.
“Erdoğan helped a lot. He is a tough guy, but he is a friend of mine and he was great,” Trump said.
Trump also said he intended to help rehabilitate Israel’s global image, which has suffered as its military intervention has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians and wounded about 170,000 according to the Gaza health authority, mostly civilians. The number does not include the thousands thought to be buried under the rubble or those killed by the indirect consequences of the war.
A UN commission of inquiry, as well as the world’s leading association of scholars on genocide, have concluded that Israeli has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejects the finding, claiming it has only acted in self-defence.
“Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world. Now I am gonna get all that support back,” Trump said.
With Reuters and Agence France-Press
