Julia Conley
“We have not seen any change on the ground,” reported Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary on Saturday, after US President Donald Trump called on the Israel Defense Forces to stop their attacks on Gaza and as some in the Western media reported that there were “hopeful signs” that negotiations in Egypt planned for the coming days would result in a major diplomatic breakthrough.
Despite Hamas’ statement Friday saying it would conditionally release the remaining hostages it has held since October 7, 2023, which led Trump to demand that Israel “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza,” Al Jazeera reported that at least 55 people had been killed in Gaza Saturday morning, including 39 in Gaza City. At least seven children between the ages of two months and eight years old were among those killed in the city, the Palestinian Civil Defense told the outlet.
“The Israeli forces a short while ago targeted a house in the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, where at least 17 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and transferred to the hospital,” reported Khoudary. “Dozens of others have been injured, and the hospitals are unable to treat all of these Palestinians. What is happening on the ground doesn’t show that there is any type of ceasefire.”
Trump claimed Saturday that Israel had “temporarily stopped the bombing.”
Regarding the Tuffah attack, Israeli officials told The New York Times that “the military has only been told to shift to defensive operations.”
The IDF “had attacked a Hamas militant who threatened Israeli soldiers in the area and… was looking into reports civilians had been harmed,” the Times reported.
Israel and the US have consistently denied that the IDF intentionally targets civilians—even as Israeli soldiers have said they’ve been ordered to do so and doctors have reported treating children with gunshot wounds to the head and chest.
The IDF also warned Gaza City residents Saturday that the city is still a “dangerous combat zone” and called on them to “move south.”
Saturday’s attacks continued as far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government warned against deescalating the offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and injured more than 169,000. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has called for Israel to annex the Gaza Strip and to build a West Bank settlement that would “bury” the potential for a Palestinian state, said that halting attacks while the details of the peace deal proposed by Trump were still being negotiated would be a “big mistake.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir added that he would leave the government if Netanyahu “compromised on the goal of destroying Hamas after the hostages were released in a deal,” The New York Times reported.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have rejected the idea of Israel ending its attacks before Hamas is destroyed.
The 20-point peace plan released by Trump this week demands that Hamas release all 20 living and 28 dead hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. It also calls for the disarmament of Hamas—a demand the group has said it would discuss at a later date—and would set up a “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Hamas has said it would instead support the establishment of an administrative government of Gaza headed by “a Palestinian body of independents, based on Palestinian national consensus and with Arab and Islamic support.”
Egypt’s foreign ministry said it plans to host delegations from Israel and Hamas on Monday for indirect talks on the hostage and prisoner exchange.
The latest move toward ceasefire talks came as a new poll from The Washington Post showed that Israel appears to have lost considerable support from many Jewish Americans, with 61% saying Netanyahu’s government is committing war crimes in Gaza and 4 in 10 saying the country is guilty of genocide.
This article was originally published in Common Dreams.
