Monday | October 6, 2025
US President Donald Trump has called on all parties involved in efforts to end the Gaza war to “move fast,” as mediators prepare to meet in Egypt on Monday for indirect peace talks between Hamas and Israel.
The Cairo meeting follows Hamas’ partial acceptance of a 20-point US peace proposal, which includes releasing hostages and transferring Gaza’s administration to Palestinian technocrats. However, the group is seeking negotiations on other points. Notably, Hamas’ response did not address two of the plan’s central demands — disarmament and its exclusion from Gaza’s future governance.
Trump wrote on social media that the talks had been “very successful,” adding, “I am told the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to move fast. Time is of the essence, or massive bloodshed will follow.”
Speaking to reporters earlier, Trump said he believed hostages could start being released “very soon.” When asked about flexibility over his plan, he replied, “We don’t need flexibility because everybody has pretty much agreed to it — but there will always be some changes. It’s a great deal for Israel, for the Arab world, the Muslim world, and the world.”
Despite Trump’s public call for Israel to “immediately stop the bombing” after Hamas responded to the proposal, Israeli air strikes continued through the weekend.
Government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Sunday that while “certain bombings have actually stopped inside of the Gaza Strip, there’s no ceasefire in place at this point.” She added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered troops “to fire back for defensive purposes if there is a threat to their life on the battlefield.”
Reports from Gaza described overnight air and tank strikes that destroyed several residential buildings in Gaza City. A BBC correspondent near Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel reported hearing explosions and seeing plumes of smoke rising from inside Gaza on Sunday morning.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 65 people were killed in the previous 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll to 67,139 since the conflict began.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS that bombing must stop to enable a hostage release. “You can’t release hostages while there’s still bombardments going on,” he said. “That has to stop, but you also have to work through the other logistics. We want to get the hostages out as soon as possible.”
The US plan calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the release of 48 hostages — only 20 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans. Netanyahu said in a televised address Saturday that he hoped to announce the hostages’ release “in the coming days.” Bedrosian added that the prime minister had made clear the talks “will be confined to a few days maximum” under an agreement with the Trump administration.
Netanyahu has ordered Israel’s delegation to depart for the Cairo talks Monday. A Hamas delegation led by senior negotiator Khalil al-Hayya — who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Doha last month — was expected to arrive Sunday night.
Also attending are US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The meeting is expected to be one of the most consequential since the start of the war and could determine whether a path to ending the conflict is finally within reach.
Hamas’ relatively restrained response to the peace plan surprised many Palestinians after days of signals that the group would reject or heavily condition its acceptance. Analysts say the omission of its usual “red lines” — such as the group’s insistence on maintaining its weapons — reflects significant pressure from regional mediators.
A senior Palestinian official told the BBC that Qatari, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators played a crucial role in persuading Hamas to moderate its stance and defer sensitive issues like disarmament and post-war governance to the negotiation table.
Still, many Gazans warn that every day of delay means more death and destruction, and that Hamas’ tactical flexibility risks eroding what little leverage it has left after nearly two years of war.
Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper what would happen if Hamas refused to relinquish control of Gaza, Trump said the group would face “complete obliteration.”
Trump also posted that Israel had agreed to an initial withdrawal line in Gaza — the first in a series of planned pullbacks by Israeli forces. According to population data, his published withdrawal map would exclude nearly 900,000 Palestinians from returning home, carving out Rafah, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, parts of Gaza City, and half of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
Hamas rejected a similar proposal in earlier talks in March and May.
Israel launched its Gaza campaign after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Independent verification of claims from either side remains difficult, as Israel continues to bar international journalists from entering Gaza independently.
For now, as delegations gather in Cairo, both sides — and the region at large — await what could be the most pivotal round of negotiations yet.