President Trump’s latest foray into Middle East peacemaking presented Hamas with what sounded like an ultimatum. He pressed the Palestinian militant group to either accept a new American cease-fire proposal or face the full wrath of Israel’s military advance into Gaza City.
“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Mr. Trump posted on social media on Sunday, hinting at a new American proposal to exchange all the remaining hostages for Palestinian prisoners and end the nearly two-year-old Gaza war.
“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!” Mr. Trump said.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump’s brinkmanship could stop the invasion of Gaza City, the main urban center of the Palestinian territory. Alternatively, if Hamas balks, it could allow Israel and the United States to argue that they had tried everything and the group was bringing disaster upon itself.
The intervention did succeed in adding to the uncertainties surrounding Israel’s impending ground assault on the heart of Gaza City in the north of the territory. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents, many of them already displaced at least once by the war, are now torn between fleeing to the overcrowded south or taking the risk of staying put.
Speaking to reporters later on Sunday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Mr. Trump said: “I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon.” Mr. Trump has made similar predictions in the past that never came to pass.
On Monday, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, issued an ominous warning of his own to Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that set off the war in Gaza.
“Today a tremendous hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City,” he wrote on X. “Release the hostages and put down your weapons — or Gaza will be ruined and you will be destroyed.”
Mr. Trump did not elaborate on the terms of any new proposal and the Israelis did not publicly confirm their acceptance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office sent a message to a number of reporters on Sunday night saying Israel was “giving very serious consideration to President Trump’s proposal,” adding, “Hamas will likely persist in its intransigence.”
Hamas issued a statement saying it had “received, through mediators, some ideas from the American side to reach a cease-fire agreement” and affirmed its readiness to enter immediately into talks.
At the same time, Israel was pressing ahead with the assault on Gaza City, which officials have described as one of the last Hamas strongholds in Gaza.
After operating in some of Gaza City’s outlying neighborhoods in recent weeks, Israel was intensifying airstrikes on targets in the core of the city during the past few days.
The military has brought down several high-rise buildings that it says were used by Hamas, without providing evidence. It was a display of force apparently intended to pressure residents to flee and to prepare for a ground invasion.
Mr. Netanyahu said on Sunday that about 100,000 residents had already left the city, heeding Israel’s warnings to head south. But hundreds of thousands remain in Gaza City and its environs, and the military’s evacuation notices have mostly been issued without any clear deadlines.
The Israeli government approved the operation a month ago. The military said it would take time to call up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers, train forces, prepare equipment and move the population out of Gaza City. It added that it intended to move cautiously in the complex urban environment, particularly given the belief that some hostages may be held there.
Israelis are divided over this new phase of the war. Many are concerned that the advance could endanger the lives of any hostages who might be held in Gaza City. And splits over the government’s war strategy have opened up between top political and security officials.
The military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, had favored going for an immediate, even partial Gaza truce deal to release at least some of the hostages rather than proceeding with the offensive. He is concerned that a conquest of Gaza City will lead to the military becoming solely responsible for the roughly 2 million Palestinians throughout the entire Gaza Strip, according to officials.
For some Israelis who want to see Hamas gone as soon as possible, progress in the war has been too hesitant.
Prof. Gabi Siboni, an Israeli colonel in the reserves and an analyst at the conservative-leaning Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, is among those advocating a controversial policy of imposing a full siege on Gaza City. He says the military, if it acts decisively, could defeat Hamas there within eight weeks or so.
The way the military is operating now in Gaza City “does not show great determination,” he said “The action on the ground is very slow.”
Other analysts say they are skeptical that Israel can attain the total victory over Hamas that Mr. Netanyahu has promised but not achieved in 23 months of war.
For the Palestinians, fleeing Gaza City in the north means heading to central or southern parts of the enclave that are now largely in ruins or already overcrowded with displaced people, and not knowing when, or if, they will ever be able to return to their homes.
Last week Mr. Katz, the defense minister, warned Hamas that if it did not surrender, Gaza City would “become like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” two Gazan cities reduced to rubble by the Israeli military.
“People think that if they leave this time they won’t be able to go back, ever,” said Prof. Mkhaimar Abusada, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza City who was displaced from his home during the war and now lives in Cairo.
Professor Abusada noted that Israeli forces had been in Gaza City before, during the early months of the war. His neighborhood was bulldozed at that time, he said.
“This time it’s going to be different,” he said, predicting that the destruction would be much more widespread.
Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
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