Israel has seemingly defied President Donald Trump’s demand to “immediately stop” bombing Gaza as uncertainty continues to hover over a finalized deal to end the bloody conflict.
Airstrikes against the occupied Palestinian territory are reported to have killed twenty people since last night, CNN reported, citing the latest information from Gaza’s hospitals.
It follows after Trump said in a Friday night Truth social post he believed both Israel and Hamas are “ready for a lasting peace,” insisting that “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!”
Hamas has said it is willing to release all hostages, both living and dead, still in captivity following the October 7th attacks of 2023, though it adds it will not accept the MAGA administration’s proposals for a ceasefire unconditionally.
Friday night’s continued bombardment of the occupied strip—where Israeli attacks have claimed almost 70,000 lives, with an estimated civilian death rate of 83%, since the outbreak of hostilities—is hardly the first time Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has openly defined U.S. calls for restraint in the ongoing and multi-faceted conflict.
Trump suffered considerable embarrassment earlier in June when, just minutes after the president had stated on Truth Social that “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran” under the terms of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, Israel attacked Iran.
“I’m not happy with Israel,” he said in comments to reporters not long after those strikes were launched. “I didn’t like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal.”
His administration is presently pushing for a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, drafted by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and published on Monday.
Those plans include provisions for an immediate ceasefire, amnesty for Hamas members who disarm, a transitional “Board of Peace” to run Gaza, partly under the leadership of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the release of all remaining hostages still held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners taken in the course of the conflict.
“We are already in discussions on details to be worked out,” Trump, as a self-styled ‘peacemaker-in-chief’ who’s made little secret of his hunger for a Nobel Peace Prize, said of the deal in his Friday Truth Social post. “This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.”
While Hamas has agreed to the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners currently detained in Israeli jails, and to surrendering its governmental control of Gaza, it has not yet said whether it is willing to disarm, as outlined in the MAGA administration’s proposals.
Netanyahu’s office has said in a statement it is preparing for the release of hostages, representing the first stage of Trump’s plan. “We will continue to work in full cooperation with the president and his team to end the war in accordance with the principles laid out by Israel, which correspond with Trump’s vision for ending the war,” the statement read, omitting any mention of demands to stop bombing the strip or its defiance of those demands.
On Saturday, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform, warning that “all bets will be off” if Hamas doesn’t “move quickly.”
