Israel airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local authorities said, hours after President Donald Trump called to halt the bombing, saying that Hamas was ready for peace.
Israeli fire killed six people across Gaza, Reuters reported, citing officials, while the Israel Defense Forces said a large part of the enclave remains a dangerous combat zone.
One strike killed four people in a house in Gaza City while another killed two others in Khan Younis, authorities said.
The attacks came after Hamas said Friday it has agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, and expressed willingness to negotiate through mediators on Trump’s 20-point plan for peace.
Trump later said that Israel “must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza,” writing on Truth Social that Hamas was “ready for a lasting PEACE.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Saturday that Israel was preparing “to immediately implement the first phase of Trump’s plan for the immediate release of all hostages.”
Residents of Gaza, which has been largely destroyed in the nearly two-year-old war and faces a serious humanitarian crisis, responded to the developments with optimism.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta told Reuters.
But attacks have continued on the enclave, and the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it continued to surround Gaza City, and that “attempting to return to it poses a significant risk.”
“The area north of Wadi Gaza is still considered a dangerous combat zone,” Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a post on X, referring to a river valley that is considered an informal divider between the northern and southern halves of Gaza.
Israeli strikes killed at least 66 people and injured over 250 in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Saturday, adding that the total death toll in the enclave had passed 67,000 after the addition of more than 700 people whose data had been verified.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, does not say how many of those killed were civilians versus combatants, but the United Nations and other independent experts consider its figures to be reliable.
It was unclear how many of the most recent deaths took place after Trump’s announcement.
The Ministry of Health reported two deaths of children due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 459, including 154 children, it said.
The U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, called on Israel to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to resume through the U.N.
The potential breakthrough with Hamas provides “a rare window of hope” to address the suffering of more than 2 million people “with unspeakable needs,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.
Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.
Of the 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, Israel believes 20 are still alive. Under the plan proposed by Trump, Hamas would have three days to release them.