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TRUCE IN GAZA

Israel prepares its response after Hamas gives green light

According to several local media outlets, the Israeli security cabinet is scheduled to meet on Saturday evening, after the end of Shabbat.

Personal belongings, furniture, and debris litter the floor of an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, which was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City on July 5, 2025. (Credit: Dawoud Abu Alkas/ Reuters)

Israel is preparing its response after Hamas announced its willingness to negotiate a cease-fire and hostage release deal, as ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza left 32 people dead on Saturday, according to the local Civil Defense.

A senior Israeli official told AFP at midday that “no decision has been made at this stage” regarding the matter. According to several local media outlets, the Israeli security cabinet is expected to convene on Saturday evening after the end of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest.

The Palestinian Islamist movement stated Friday evening that it was ready to “immediately engage” in negotiations based on a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal conveyed through Qatari and Egyptian mediation.

U.S. President Donald Trump said an agreement could be reached “next week.” He expressed strong optimism, while also noting that the situation is “changing day by day.”

“We need to put an end to this. We need to do something for Gaza,” Trump said. He is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday.

“We hope a truce will happen,” said Karima Al-Ras, a resident of Gaza, speaking to AFP. “Border crossings will open and flour will be allowed in. People are desperately waiting for flour and are dying trying to find food for their children.”


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According to a Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations, the U.S. proposal currently on the table includes a 60-day truce during which Hamas would release half of the remaining living hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Of the 251 people abducted on the first day of the war — triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli soil — 49 remain in captivity in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army.

Two American aid workers injured

On the ground, the Israeli army has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, which remains in a dire humanitarian state nearly 21 months into the conflict.

According to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, a local emergency response organization, 32 people were killed in Gaza since early Saturday. “The explosion was terrifying — many tents caught fire, and women and children were terrified,” Mohammed Khafaja told AFP. He said he lost his uncle and several cousins in an overnight strike on Khan Younis.

Reached for comment, the Israeli army told AFP it could not address specific strikes without exact geographic coordinates.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — a U.S. and Israeli-supported organization — announced that two of its American employees were injured in an “attack” on one of its aid distribution centers in southern Gaza. Their injuries were not life-threatening.

“The attack, according to initial information, was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans. It occurred at the end of an otherwise successful food distribution,” GHF said in a statement.

Due to severe media restrictions and limited ground access, AFP notes that independently verifying the claims of the various parties remains extremely difficult.

The Oct. 7 attack left 1,219 people dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. In response, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed at least 57,338 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry figures deemed credible by the United Nations.


The Palestinian Islamist movement stated Friday evening that it was ready to “immediately engage” in negotiations based on a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal conveyed through Qatari and Egyptian mediation. “We hope a truce will happen,” said Karima Al-Ras, a resident of Gaza, speaking to AFP. “Border crossings will open and flour will be allowed in. People are desperately waiting for flour and are dying trying to find food for their children.”According to a Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations, the U.S. proposal currently on the table includes a 60-day truce during which Hamas would release half of the remaining living hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.Of the 251 people abducted on the first day of the war — triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on...