By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Steve Holland
CAIRO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump hopes to finalize a Gaza peace plan proposal in a meeting on Monday with Israel’s Prime Minister, Trump told Reuters on Sunday, as Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Gaza City and the military wing of Hamas said it had lost contact with two hostages held there.
The fate of the two hostages, which has strong domestic resonance in Israel, could cast a shadow over a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump on Monday.
The Hamas military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, called on Israel on Sunday to pull troops back and suspend air strikes on Gaza City for 24 hours so fighters could retrieve the captives.
Trump told Reuters in a phone interview he had received a “very good response” from Israel and Arab leaders to the Gaza peace plan proposal and that “everybody wants to make a deal.”
Hamas said the group had not yet received any proposal from Trump nor from mediators.
Israel has launched a massive ground assault on Gaza City, flattening whole districts and ordering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee to tented camps, in what Netanyahu says is a bid to destroy Hamas.
Nevertheless, the past few days have seen increasing talk of a diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year-old Gaza war.
Trump’s 21-point Middle East peace plan to end the Gaza war calls for the return of all Israeli hostages, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for “peaceful coexistence.”
HAMAS URGES ISRAELI MILITARY TO PULL BACK
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must lay down its arms or be defeated. He told Fox News earlier on Sunday it is possible to have amnesty for Hamas leaders under a ceasefire agreement that would include them being escorted out of Gaza.
Hamas has so far said it will never give up its weapons as long as Palestinians are struggling for a state. It refuses any expulsion of its leaders from Gaza.
Al-Qassam Brigades called on the Israeli military to pull troops back from the Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa districts southeast of Gaza City’s centre, and suspend flights over the area for 24 hours from 1500 GMT so it could reach the two trapped hostages.
The Israeli military did not directly comment on the request but made clear it had no plans to halt its advances, issuing a statement ordering all residents of parts of Gaza City including the Sabra district to leave. It said it was about to attack Hamas targets and raze buildings in the area.
Gaza residents and medics said Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Sabra, Tel Al-Hawa and nearby Sheikh Radwan and Al-Naser neighbourhoods, closing in on the heart of the city and western areas where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.
RESCUERS UNABLE TO REACH TRAPPED RESIDENTS
The Gaza health ministry said in a statement that at least 77 people had been killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours.
Local health authorities said they had been unable to respond to dozens of desperate calls from trapped residents.
Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international organisations, to let it rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The families of the two hostages identified by Hamas have requested that their names not be published by the media.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli territory in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Forty-eight hostages are still in Gaza, 20 of whom Netanyahu says are still alive.
Israel’s assault has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, according to medical authorities in the territory. Most homes have been damaged or destroyed and 2.3 million residents are living under a severe humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli military says Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, no longer has governing capacity and that its military force has been reduced to a guerrilla movement.
The military launched its long-threatened ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16 after weeks of intensifying strikes on the urban centre.
Over the past 24 hours, the air force had struck 140 military targets across Gaza, including militants and what it described as military infrastructure, the military said.
The World Food Programme estimates that between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since last month, although hundreds of thousands remain. The Israeli military estimates that around a million Palestinians were in Gaza City in August.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Steven Scheer, Alexander Cornwell and May Angel in Jerusalem and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Writing by Nia Williams; Editing by David Holmes, Peter Graff and Diane Craft)
