Let’s start with the West Bank. Reports of settler violence are emerging almost every day. How serious has the situation become in the West Bank?

Well, the situation is really bad and it’s getting worse because settler terrorism is part and parcel of an Israeli policy aimed at erasing the Palestinian presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. It has been ongoing since day one of the occupation, but today, we see that settler terrorism is spiking.

And it is spiking because settler terrorists are emboldened by ministers in the Israeli government who are themselves settlers. They arm the settlers, and provide them with money. They themselves are ministers in the morning and part of the settler group in the evening. So the aim is very well-known to the Palestinians and the world today. It is about erasing the Palestinian presence and it is done in a systematic way. It’s not carried out by settlers here and there. It is part of a broader policy of occupation.

Is the Israeli government planning to annex the West Bank?

The Israeli plan has been there since day one of the occupation. The intention is known. Kick the Palestinians out, displace them, grab their land, and call it your own. And they don’t shy away from telling the world that this is what they will be doing. And today they call it Judea and Samaria. They don’t even use the term West Bank or occupied Palestinian territory. So, the intention is very well known. They are systematically working on it. And we will continue our struggle because the occupied territory is occupied. This is what international law says. This is what the International Court of Justice confirmed and as such, our focus and compass are international law. Whatever Israel, through its arms, settlements and settlers, is doing in the occupied territory does not change the fact that this is occupied territory.

Let’s look at [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s 15-point peace plan for Gaza. He says Hamas would be demilitarised and Israeli troops would withdraw from Gaza, and the territory would be placed under a technocratic administration. What is the Palestinian Authority’s view of the plan?

Our utmost priority was and still is stopping the bleeding in Gaza. I mean, Gaza has been genocided for almost three years now. And the priority is to bring some peace and security to the devastated people in Gaza. Everything in Gaza today has been destroyed. And people require immediate assistance. In that sense, we have welcomed the peace plan. Today, we would like to see that the terms of the peace plan are respected. That plan has specific points going through various phases. We’re stuck in phase one.

We need to embark on phase two, and President Trump has said how we need to move on to phase two, and they need to hold all sides accountable. Hamas said it is ready to give up the arms; no matter how you look at it, there is some responsiveness in that regard. Now, the ball is in the Israeli court. They need to come forward because they have obligations. And the first and foremost obligation is for Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. What we hear from Israel is contrary to that. Israel is telling the world that it will stay in Gaza. It is already occupying 60% of Gaza. It wants to entrench its occupation.

Do you think President Trump is serious about the Israeli pull-back from Gaza?

If he put that in his plan and that plan is his legacy, then I would assume that he is serious about it. And if somebody can do it today, it would be President Trump.

There are ideological and institutional divisions between Hamas [which runs parts of Gaza] and the Palestinian Authority [which is based in Ramallah in the West Bank]. Do you see a possibility of Palestinian national unity emerging?

Unity is a must because if you want to embrace the world and embrace the realisation of the state of Palestine, we need to show a united front. We can differ on many things, but our national project remains the same. Our target is ending the occupation. We have different views on how to end that occupation. But unity is possible and we have embraced dialogue on unity in the past years, and in that sense we appreciate all the mediators, whether it was Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Algeria. So, we are ready to move forward with unity, but that unity needs to rest on principles.

One of the basic principles is to agree on the mandate of the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] because we all fall under the PLO. All political factions in Palestine must fall under the PLO, under the vision of one government, one law, one administration, and one weapon. So, it is open and if we come to terms on that, then I think we can move with the unity issue.

If Hamas agrees to disarm and accept the PLO’s worldview, would it be allowed to join the PLO?

Participation in the PLO is open, but you need to embrace what the PLO mandate stands for and what kind of Palestine we’re looking forward to and how to achieve the strategy towards materialising the state of Palestine. If that is the case, the PLO is open to any Palestinian individual or faction.

Is the two-state solution still alive? Do you still see a practical way forward?

There is no other solution. The other solution is a one-state solution, if Israel is adamant on not having two states, which gives Israel 78% of historic Palestine. No one can imagine that Israel will accept one state for all its citizens in which Palestinians today are more numerous than the Israeli Jewish population. So you can imagine what will happen in 10-20 years from now.

Israel does not want to give any of the occupied land, but if it wants to live in peace and security, it needs to become a normal state. Today it is not a normal state. Today, it voices its expansionist, colonialist ideology and infringes on the rights of neighbouring countries. This is an expansionist state that does not comply with international law. It has shown the world that it is capable of committing genocide and continues to violate the rights of Palestinians. It needs to be stopped in accordance with international law.

Israeli officials would say their hard military response is necessitated by Palestinian or Hamas terrorism. They also point to the October 7, 2023 attack, when Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel. What is your response to this?

I think this is a very faulty response. We’ve been living under state-sponsored terrorism from day one of the occupation. Israel has obligations towards the occupied people and throughout the years of occupation, our right to self-determination, our basic rights as human beings have been violated. In education, in mobility, in health, in social services, anything you can think of has been violated. So people under such violations for decades would want to get rid of that occupation. That is not called terrorism. That is called a struggle against an illegal occupier. Today, what Israel is using is state-sponsored terrorism through its various arms.

What Israel has done in Gaza is terrorism. Yes, October 7th was violent, but it has to be seen in a context of years and decades of violence. It was violent, but the Israeli response was way disproportionate to the violence that was exercised on October 7. October 7 does not give Israel the right to kill 75,000 people, injure another 175,000 and destroy 80% of Gaza. This is not acceptable.

Do you think Palestinians are worse off today than they were before October 7?

Today, the situation is very hard. Of course, we have 2 million people in Gaza living under immense devastation. They don’t even have their basic needs met. In the West Bank, the entrenchment of occupation is much stronger and the situation on the ground is much worse.

What happened to the international support that the Palestinians once enjoyed? Do you still receive meaningful support from the world’s major powers, or do you feel that the Palestinian issue is being pushed to the margins of global politics?

I think this fluctuates, but in general, yes, we still enjoy a lot of support, and that support needs to be nurtured. But we also understand that today the world is based on interests, and countries have various interests, rightly so. But for all countries that say they support international law and compliance with international law, there should be no double standards in its application.

They need to come forward. This is what is expected of countries that respect international law. Otherwise, if there is no respect for international law and there is no response to Israel’s violations, then talking about international law and your responsibilities towards it and towards the Palestinian people becomes irrelevant.

Let’s look at India’s position as well. India has historically supported the Palestinian cause, and its position today is that it backs a two-state solution. But India’s position has also evolved over the years and it has built strong bilateral ties with Israel. How do you assess India’s position today?

Look, we have a very long-standing relationship with India. India was among the first countries that recognised [Palestine]. It is a friend of Israel as well, and we have no issue with that.

They need to be vocal about what is right and what is wrong, and they need to be vocal about violations of international law. This is what is expected of India. India continues its development and humanitarian assistance with the Palestinians. It continues to voice its compliance with the idea of the two-state solution.

And we expect India, being a friend of both [Israel and Palestine] and a country with significant global weight, to push more towards respecting a world order based on international law and [ensuring there are] no violations of that law.

So, there was a recent Amnesty International report claiming that more than 2,500 shipments of arms and ammunition were sent from India to Israel after October 7. What is your response to this report?

Any report that comes out from [Amnesty] or any other international organisation needs to be looked at very seriously. Because such reports have a lot of credibility. And today, arms sales, arms dealings with the State of Israel need to be questioned because we have obligations. All states have obligations based on international law and our position and the world’s position must be guided by international law and continuing transfer of arms to the state of Israel might violate international law.

The ICJ said very clearly that there is plausible genocide in Gaza and any arms transferred to Israel might be contributing to the terror on the Gaza front or on the West Bank. And as such you know we need to be very careful when we deal with arms with the state of Israel and this is what is expected from India as well.

Would you expect India to play any substantial role as a peacemaker between the Israelis and the Palestinians?

Yes, we expect any country with such weight and stature worldwide to exercise whatever it can on forging peace in the region because that peace and that intervention will not only benefit Israel, Palestine and the region. It will benefit the world at large because the conflict is a global issue. It’s not just a West Asian issue.

United Nations Security Council.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to a devastated Gaza City on Saturday (October 11, 2025), as Hamas warned the next stage in U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan would be more difficult than the first.

Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy promised Israeli hostage families their loved ones would be returned to them by Monday, and the region’s top U.S. general visited Gaza one day after the guns fell silent.

Israel and Hamas are now expected to release hostages and prisoners, two years after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack triggered a counteroffensive that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.

But after the prisoner exchange and a partial Israeli withdrawal, the conflict’s U.S.-led mediators will then have to secure a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand in its weapons and step aside from governing Gaza.

In an interview with AFP in Qatar, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, warned: “The second phase of the Trump plan, as it is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties.”

Hamas to miss Gaza peace deal formal signing

Hamas, he said, would not attend the formal signing of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt, where international leaders are due to gather Monday to discuss implementing the first phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas is resisting calls to disarm. An official from the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that it was “out of the question”.

Mr. Badran said that, while the group does not want war, “our Palestinian people and the resistance force will undoubtedly confront and use all their capabilities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed”.

Multinational force

Under the Trump plan, as Israel conducts a phased withdrawal from Gaza’s cities, it will be replaced by a multinational force from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a U.S.-led command centre in Israel.

On Saturday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-on-law Jared Kushner visited Gaza to plan the next phase of the truce with Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.

U.S. envoy Witkoff, in message to Gaza hostages, says you are coming home

Witkoff, Kushner and Trump’s daughter Ivanka then went on to Tel Aviv to attend a vigil with the families of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza. A huge crowd greeted them with cheers and chants of “Thank you Trump!”.

“Your courage has moved the world,” Witkoff told the families. “To the hostages themselves: you are coming home.”

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is one of about 20 hostages believed to still be alive, said: “We will continue to shout and fight until everyone is home.”

Hamas has until noon on Monday to hand over 47 remaining Israeli hostages -living and dead – from the 251 abducted two years ago.

The remains of one more hostage, held in Gaza since 2014, are also expected to be returned.

In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including some of those serving life sentences for deadly anti-Israeli attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained by the military since the war broke out.

The Israeli prison service said on Saturday it had moved the 250 national security detainees to the prisons of Ofer, in the occupied West Bank, and Ketziot in southern Israel’s Negev desert, ahead of the handover.

‘Stood and cried’

According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, a rescue service operating under Hamas authority, more than 500,000 Palestinians had returned to Gaza City by Saturday evening.

“We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP.

When she reached the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house utterly destroyed.

“I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust,” she said.

Drone footage shot by AFP showed whole city blocks reduced to a twisted mess of concrete and steel reinforcing wire.

The walls and windows of five-storey apartment blocks had been torn off and now lay choking the roadsides as disconsolate residents poked through the rubble.

The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel has allowed agencies to start transporting 170,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza if the ceasefire holds.

‘Ghost town’

Men, women and children navigated streets filled with rubble, searching for homes amid collapsed concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles and debris.

While some returned in vehicles, most walked, carrying belongings in bags strapped to their shoulders.

Sami Musa, 28, returned alone to check on his family’s house.

“Thank God… I found that our home is still standing,” Musa told AFP.

“It felt like a ghost town, not Gaza,” Musa said. “The smell of death still lingers in the air.”

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City as seen from the central Gaza Strip on October 8, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli and Hamas officials are meeting in an Egyptian resort on Monday (October 6, 2025) in hopes of hammering out a potential ceasefire in Gaza on the eve of the second anniversary.

The indirect negotiations will take place in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Israeli delegation, headed by top negotiator Ron Dermer, is set to arrive Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

Hamas’ delegation, headed by Khalil al-Hayyah, arrived on Sunday in Egypt, the group said in a statement.

It said the negotiations will focus on the first stage of a ceasefire, including the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces as well as the release of hostages held by the militants in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are also expected to join the talks, Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram reported.

This latest push for peace comes after Hamas accepted some elements of the U.S. peace plan, a move welcomed by Mr. Trump. Israel has said it supported the new U.S. effort. Under the plan, Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages — about 20 believed to be alive — within three days. It would give up power and disarm.

The talks in Egypt are expected to move fast as Netanyahu said they would be “confined to a few days maximum,” though some Hamas officials have warned more time may be needed to locate the bodies of hostages buried under rubble.

Tamping down bombing

Israel’s heavy bombardment of Gaza would need to stop for Israeli hostages to be released. Israel says it’s largely heeding Trump’s call for ending the bombing. The Israeli military said it is mostly carrying out defensive strikes to protect troops, though dozens of Palestinians have been killed since Saturday night when the military made the announcement.

The Israeli military said Monday (October 6) that it eliminated “a terrorist cell armed with explosive devices and mortars” that on Sunday intended to attack Israeli soldiers.

It also destroyed another “terrorist cell” that launched a mortar, injuring one soldier, as well as a structure from where an anti-tank missile was launched against Israeli army engineering machinery.

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in a ceasefire or other deals.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll in the war reached 67,139 on Sunday, with nearly 170,000 injured. The ministry does not differentiate how many of those killed were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up about half of 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.

‘Living in fear, war and displacement’

In Gaza, Palestinian babies born on the day that the war began are hoping to celebrate their second birthday to the sound of laughter and cheers instead of the cacophony of bombs, missiles and bullets.

The hope of mothers to bring up their children in some semblance of normality that many take for granted has long worn thin amid the despair of repeated displacements, a constant fear for their safety and a lack of access to proper healthcare.

Rola Saqer said the two years since giving birth to her daughter Masa have been full of suffering and misery.

“I was hoping (Masa) would grow up with a strong personality, but she is weak. She has suffered malnutrition. The girl has weighed eight kilos for five months now,” Rola, who was displaced from Gaza’s northern town of Beit Lahia, said.

Rola and her husband, Mohammed Zaqout, have been trying to have a child for five years.

“I am scared for my daughter. She is two, and she has been living in fear, war and displacement,” said Saqer. Hanging laundry, a plastic chair, a carpet, and a basic settee make up the family’s possessions in their tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Amal al-Taweel and her husband, Mostafa, had their son Ali after three years of trying for a child. Now living in a tent inside an alley of the UNRWAR schools, Amal said Ali is being deprived of proper sanitation, food, vaccinations and even toys.

“I despair because I cannot provide my son with everything. I was envisioning a different life for him… He couldn’t live in his house and did not get to see his room. He couldn’t experience what a safe family life feels like. There are strikes, destruction and displacement,” Amal said.

Published – October 06, 2025 05:06 pm IST

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, 72, will play a key role in the transitional body that will govern the post-war Gaza Strip, as per U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point “Peace Plan”. Mr. Trump’s plan draws heavily from a proposal that Mr. Blair himself had developed through his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

In Mr. Blair’s version of the plan, an international body, the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), would govern the Gaza Strip for a certain number of years. In Mr. Trump’s proposal, Article 9 states that Gaza would be “governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee”. This Palestinian committee, however, will report to “a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace”, which will be headed and chaired by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

Also read | Trump’s Gaza peace plan: What’s in the 20-point peace proposal?

The governance structure comprising a transitional Palestinian committee and the Board of Peace is a rehash of Mr. Blair’s GITA model. Both versions envisage an administrative hierarchy with a wealthy white man (Mr. Blair/Mr. Trump) from the West helming an apex body that would “exercise supreme strategic and political authority”. Palestinian representation comes at the bottom of the managerial ladder. Its remit is restricted to the nitty-gritty of civic governance such as policing, municipal services, and vaccination programmes.

Mr. Trump’s plan also makes it clear that the “framework and funding” for the redevelopment of Gaza will be managed by the Board of Peace. As per leaked excerpts of Mr. Blair’s proposal, this Board would consist of seven to 10 members, with sizeable representation to billionaire investors, alongside Arab/Muslim faces to bestow a semblance of legitimacy.

A major criticism levelled against Mr. Trump’s Gaza plan is that Palestinians were not consulted, which is both true and unsurprising, given its provenance in Mr. Blair’s think tank. However, what has sparked outrage is the return of Mr. Blair as a “Governor” figure. British politician George Galloway posted on social media, “Once it was clear that Satan was fully occupied elsewhere, Tony Blair was the obvious choice to govern Gaza for Trump and Netanyahu.” British and American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan wrote, “Putting Tony Blair in charge of any kind of peace effort in the Middle East [West Asia] is like making the arsonist the head fire-fighter; the burglar the chief detective.” What makes Mr. Blair such a polarising figure, and why is he the chosen one to run Gaza?

Labour leader

Mr. Blair became leader of the Labour Party in 1994 following the untimely death of his predecessor, John Smith. Interestingly, he did so despite the fact that party colleague and rival Gordon Brown was seen as Smith’s natural successor. A gifted politician, Mr. Blair broke with traditional Labour politics — democratic socialism riding on support from trade unions — by following a “third way” that won over the middle classes. Named “New Labour” by analysts, he adopted a centrist, pro-market stance on the economic front, and in a sharp departure from the non-interventionism of “old Labour”, embraced an ‘interventionist’ foreign policy. The shift worked brilliantly. Mr. Blair led Labour to victory in three consecutive parliamentary elections. He became the longest-serving Labour Prime Minister in British history, holding office from 1997 to 2007. Worsening relations with Mr. Brown, however, forced him to resign in June 2007.

As Prime Minister, Mr. Blair’s biggest achievement was brokering the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of brutal sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. It was a triumph that would become his calling card — and a rather lucrative one — as an expert in conflict resolution. He also put into action the “Blair Doctrine” of “humanitarian interventionism” by sending British troops to Kosovo in 1999 and to Sierra Leone, a former British colony, in 2000. He believed that “the international community” had a right to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign nations in order to stop human rights abuses.

Ironically, his penchant for interventionism, which won him plaudits in the context of Kosovo and Sierra Leone, would, with his cheerleading of the 2003 Iraq war, lead to his downfall and eventual status as a political pariah. The Chilcot Inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war delivered a searing indictment of Mr. Blair’s role as Prime Minister, charging him with deceiving the British people and dragging Britain into an unnecessary, illegal war on false pretexts (there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq). It also noted that Mr. Blair sent British troops to a country that posed no threats to British interests, in a move that cost the lives of 179 British citizens, besides thousands of Iraqi lives, displacing millions of Iraqis, and creating long-term instability in the region. It led many, including members of his own party, to brand him a “war criminal”.

Immediately after resigning as PM, Mr. Blair was made the “Middle East Envoy” of the Quartet — the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia. On paper, his mandate was to help build Palestinian institutions and liaise with all the stakeholders for economic development. But Mr. Blair, a trusted friend of Israel, made no visible effort to either halt the expansion of Israeli settlements or push for a two-state settlement. He failed to win the trust or respect of the Palestinians. Though he flopped as a peacemaker, his personal wealth grew rapidly, through paid consultancies with governments in the region, speaking engagements, and operating as an intermediary for billionaire businessmen.

Larry Ellison, the Zionist billionaire who is in talks to buy TikTok, is a donor to the Tony Blair Institute. Mr. Blair also became an adviser to JP Morgan Chase, a bank that, as reported by journalist Jonathan Cook, benefited massively from at least one major deal brokered by Mr. Blair in his capacity as West Asia envoy. According to Mr. Cook, Mr. Blair got Israel to open up West Bank’s airwaves for a Palestinian cellphone company. But the price negotiated by Mr. Blair is quite revealing: the Palestinians had to stop raising the issue of Israeli war crimes at the UN.

This is the “experience of the region” that Mr. Blair brings to his latest job. It is evident that this experience is viewed favourably by his most important backers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes), and Mr. Trump, who continues to aid and abet the genocide in Gaza. More than a century after one British politician inaugurated a settler colonial project in Palestine with the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians in Gaza remain mute witnesses as their fate, and their future, is delivered into the hands of another, their new viceroy.

Published – October 05, 2025 01:30 am IST

Israel said Saturday (October 4, 2025) its troops were still operating in Gaza and warned residents not to return, despite calls from the families of Israeli hostages and U.S. President Donald Trump for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Mr. Trump issued the appeal to the key U.S. ally after Palestinian militant group Hamas said it was ready to release all hostages and start talks on the details of his plan to en.d. the nearly two-year war.

“The movement announces its approval for the release of all hostages — living and remains — according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal,” Hamas said in a Friday statement.

Mr. Trump later posted on Truth Social: “Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, 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!”

A senior Hamas official said Saturday (October 4, 2025) the group was “ready to begin negotiations immediately to finalise all issues”.

Another Hamas official said Egypt, a mediator in the truce talks, would host a conference for Palestinian factions to decide on Gaza’s post-war future.

Mr. Trump’s proposal calls for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’s disarmament.

It also stipulates that Hamas and other factions “not have any role in the governance of Gaza”, with administration of the territory instead taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Mr. Trump himself.

“President Trump’s demand to stop the war immediately is essential to prevent serious and irreversible harm to the hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

“We call on Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu to immediately begin efficient and swift negotiations to bring all our hostages home.”

Heavy bombardment

But despite Mr. Trump’s appeal, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out dozens of attacks on Gaza City overnight, with nearby hospitals reporting casualties.

“It was a very violent night, during which the (Israeli army) carried out dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza City and other areas in the Strip, despite President Trump’s call to halt the bombing,” spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Mr. Bassal, whose agency is a rescue force which operates under Hamas authority, said 20 homes were destroyed overnight.

The Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and urged residents not to return.

“The IDF (Israeli military) troops are still operating in Gaza City, and returning to it is extremely dangerous. For your safety, avoid returning north or approaching areas of IDF troop activity anywhere — including in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said on X.

Israeli media reported that the military had shifted to a defensive posture in Gaza following Trump’s call, though the military did not confirm this to AFP.

Gaza City’s Baptist Hospital said it received casualties from a strike on a home in the city’s Tuffah neighbourhood, including four dead and several wounded.

Further south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis said two children were killed and eight people wounded in a drone strike on a tent in a camp for displaced Gazans.

Jamila al-Sayyid, 24, a resident of Gaza City’s Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, said “the bombing was intense throughout the night. I was happy when Trump announced a ceasefire, but the warplanes did not stop.”

Hopeful reactions

An AFP journalist in coastal area of Al-Mawasi reported hearing celebratory cries of “Allahu akbar!” (God is the greatest) rise from tents housing Palestinians as news of Hamas’s statement spread.

“This is a day of joy, a great day. The war has been raging for two years,” said Sami Adas, 50, who lives in a tent in Gaza City with his family.

“The best thing is that President Trump himself announced a ceasefire, and Netanyahu will not be able to escape this time… he is the only one who can force Israel to comply and stop the war.”

Gaza peace plan LIVE

The latest developments drew hopeful reactions from world leaders and organisations, with UN rights chief Volker Turk saying it was was a “vital opportunity” to stop bloodshed and misery in the Palestinian territory “once and for all”.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

Published – October 04, 2025 11:07 pm IST

Israel’s army said Saturday (October 4, 2025) that it would advance preparations for the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza and return all the remaining hostages.

The army said it was instructed by Israel’s leaders to “advance readiness” for the implementation of the plan. An official who was not authorised to speak to the media on the record said that Israel has moved to a defensive-only position in Gaza and will not actively strike. The official said no forces have been removed from the strip.

Also Read: Gaza peace plan LIVE | Updates on October 4, 2025

The announcement came hours after Mr. Trump ordered Israel to stop bombing Gaza once Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan. Mr. Trump welcomed the Hamas statement, saying: “I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE.”

Mr. Trump appears keen to deliver on pledges to end the war and return dozens of hostages ahead of the second anniversary of the attack on Tuesday (October 7, 2025). His proposal unveiled earlier this week has widespread international support and was also endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Friday (October 3, 2025), Mr. Netanyahu’s office said Israel was committed to ending the war that began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, without addressing potential gaps with the militant group.

Mr. Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from the international community and Mr. Trump to end the conflict. The official told the AP that Mr. Netanyahu put out the rare late-night statement on the sabbath saying that Israel has started to prepare for Mr. Trump’s plan due to pressure from the U.S. administration.

The official also said that a negotiating team was getting ready to travel, but there was no date specified.

A senior Egyptian official says talks are underway for the release of hostages, as well as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention. The official, who is involved in the ceasefire negotiations, also said Arab mediators are preparing for a comprehensive dialogue among Palestinians. The talks are aimed at unifying the Palestinian position toward Gaza’s future.

On Saturday (October 4, 2025), the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful militant group in Gaza, said it accepted Hamas’ response to the Mr. Trump plan. The group had previously rejected the proposal days earlier.

Also, on Saturday (October 4, 2025), Gaza’s Health Ministry said that the death toll in the nearly two-year Israel-Hamas war has topped 67,000 Palestinians. The death toll jumped after the ministry said it added more than 700 names to the list whose data had been verified.

Gaza’s Health Ministry does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says women and children make up around 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.

Progress, but uncertainty ahead

Yet, despite the momentum, a lot of questions remain.

Under the plan, Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages — around 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.

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. Its official statement also didn’t address the issue of Hamas demilitarising, a key part of the deal.

Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli general and chairman of Israel’s Defence and Security Forum, said while Israel can afford to stop firing for a few days in Gaza so the hostages can be released, it will resume its offensive if Hamas doesn’t lay down its arms.

Others say that while Hamas suggests a willingness to negotiate, its position fundamentally remains unchanged.

This “yes, but” rhetoric “simply repackages old demands in softer language,” said Oded Ailam, a researcher at the Jerusalem Centre for Security and Foreign Affairs. The gap between appearance and action is as wide as ever and the rhetorical shift serves more as a smoke screen than a signal of true movement toward resolution, he said.

Meanwhile, protests have erupted across Europe calling for an end to the war. On Saturday (October 4, 2025), tens of thousands of people marched in Barcelona, Spain, with demonstrations expected in Italy and Portugal.

Unclear what it means for Palestinians suffering in Gaza

The next steps for Palestinians in Gaza who are trying to piece together what it means in real terms are also unclear.

“What we want is practical implementation. … We want a truce on the ground,” said Samir Abdel-Hady, in Gaza’s Khan Younis. He worried that talks would break down like they’ve done in the past.

Israeli troops are still laying siege to Gaza City, which is the focus of its latest offensive. On Saturday (October 4, 2025) Israel’s army warned Palestinians against trying to return to the city calling it a “dangerous combat zone”.

Experts determined that Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched its major offensive there aimed at occupying it. An estimated 4,00,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.

Families of the hostages are also cautious about being hopeful.

There are concerns from all sides, said Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is held in Gaza. Hamas and Mr. Netanyahu could sabotage the deal or Mr. Trump could lose interest, he said. Still, he says, if it’s going to happen it will be because of Mr. Trump.

“We’re putting our trust in Mr. Trump, because he’s the only one who’s doing it. … And we want to see him with us until the last step,” he said.

Published – October 04, 2025 06:48 pm IST

Hamas said on Friday (October 3, 2025) it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signalled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details. 

Hamas reiterated its agreement to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats. 

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera on Friday (October 3, 2025) the group would not disarm before the Israeli occupation ends, adding the issues over Gaza’s future should be discussed within a comprehensive Palestinian national framework which Hamas will be part of.

The official added that Hamas will enter negotiations on all issues related to the group and its arms.

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President Donald Trump speaks to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30, 2025, in Quantico.
| Photo Credit: AP