CAIRO: The Israeli military on Sunday ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza, even as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war, amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.

“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive.

A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.

Trump urges end to the war; Hamas signals readiness to resume talks

But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis.

“The (Israeli) Defence Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city centre to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations,” the military said.

The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts.

Ceasefire push

The escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign prisoners still being held by Hamas.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining prisoners in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war.

23 killed in strikes

Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes and gunfire killed 23 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on Sunday, including three children.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that his services “transported 23 martyrs, including several children and women” killed in various locations around the Gaza Strip.

Separately, the Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that a 20-year-old soldier was killed “during combat in the northern Gaza Strip”.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2025