People walk with humanitarian aid packages that they received from a distribution center in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
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Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump hailed an apparent reduction in Israeli military strikes on Gaza, as U.S. negotiators travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian, Qatari and Hamas negotiators in a bid to end the two-year conflict.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump urged Hamas to “move quickly” to take advantage of the latest respite in Israel’s combat operations, insisting he would “not tolerate delay” from the group, and warning that, absent a swift agreement, “all bets will be off.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he hopes Hamas will have returned all remaining hostages by Oct. 13 — the end of an upcoming Jewish holiday.
A hospital official seemed to confirm Saturday that Israel’s bombing of Gaza City had “significantly subsided” after weeks of intensive strikes on the devastated territory’s largest urban center.
However, the Shifa Hospital director, Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, told the Associated Press that medical teams had nonetheless recorded the deaths of at least five Palestinians, and NPR’s Anas Baba noted at least three airstrikes overnight into Saturday.
Earlier this week, the White House unveiled a 20-point peace plan, to which Hamas subsequently agreed, at least in part.
One of the initial measures was a requirement for the group to immediately release all remaining hostages within…