Updates: Hamas ‘welcomes’ new ceasefire proposal, Israel pounds Gaza City

Thank you for joining our coverage.

To learn more about Trump’s new proposal to end the war in Gaza, read this.

To follow the Global Sumud Flotilla heading for Gaza, check out our live coverage here.

And you can always find all our coverage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza here.

But before we go, let us bring you up to speed on the latest developments:

• The US has issued a new ceasefire plan that would see the immediate release of all Israeli captives still held in Gaza in exchange for about 2,000-3,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and a ceasefire in Gaza.
• Hamas welcomed the proposal in an official statement, while US President Trump claimed that Israel had agreed. Israel has made no official statement.
• Sources in Gaza hospitals told our team on the ground that at least 65 people have been killed since dawn today, including 49 in Gaza City and in the north of the Strip, where Israel is concentrating its assault.
• Israel’s prime minister claimed that about 100,000 Palestinians have so far left Gaza City, according to Israeli media reports, as the military pushes forward with plans to seize the city.
• Israel flattened another residential high-rise in Gaza City, displacing dozens more people and continuing its campaign of destroying the infrastructure there.

With the Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza, Colombian journalist Mauricio Morales, who has been covering the flotilla’s journey for Al Jazeera, describes a typical day at sea for the two dozen or so volunteers on board his boat.

The journey includes a balance of rest, training, history lessons, and a focus on the mission at hand, Morales said.

Read more here.

The Israeli military has destroyed another tower block in Gaza City with an air strike, part of its ongoing campaign to seize the city, which is leaving large parts of the area uninhabitable.

A forced evacuation order had been issued for the Al-Ruya Tower after Israel claimed there was Hamas infrastructure inside or nearby the building. There is no evidence that this was the case.

Amjad Shawa is the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network. He says displaced Palestinians are running out of places to shelter in across Gaza.

Watch our video for the full interview:

Trump was reportedly playing golf with special envoy Steve Witkoff exactly a week ago when they developed a new ceasefire proposal.

They communicated it to Hamas, not through the established channels – through mediators Qatar and Egypt – but rather through backchannels, namely, an Israeli peace activist and Israeli-American businessman.

According to the reports, the terms of this agreement are that Hamas releases all 48 remaining captives in exchange for some 3,000 Palestinians who have been imprisoned in Israel.

Israel would agree not to invade and occupy Gaza City, and Trump would oversee the deal personally, as talks to end the war begin and a ceasefire with no end date continues.

It’s not clear if Israel agreed to these terms, as Trump claimed it did in his Truth Social post.

Isaac Herzog says Israel “must establish a state commission of inquiry” into what led to the October 7 attack, which the government has been resisting for nearly two years.

“This is the right course of action, and it must be done as soon as possible,” Herzog said in comments carried by The Times of Israel. He was speaking at the October Council, a group representing family members of captives and those killed in the Hamas-led assault in 2023.

“We must study the failure and the disaster in depth, this entire catastrophe, in order to understand, learn, and draw lessons. We must establish a state commission of inquiry,” the president said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived this evening in the United Kingdom on an official three-day state visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The two leaders are expected to discuss ways to support ongoing efforts to achieve an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, end the destruction and starvation of the Palestinian people, ensure the release of captives and detainees, facilitate the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, and secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces, according to Wafa news agency.

The talks will also address enabling Palestine to assume full responsibility for governing the ravaged Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank. 

There was a framework on the table presented by mediators nearly three weeks ago, which Hamas said ‘yes’ to. The mediators, which are Qatar and Egypt, said this deal included pretty much everything Israel wanted – around 90 percent – and the other 10 percent would be negotiated starting on day one of the deal.

However, the Israelis never responded to that, but moved forward with the occupation of Gaza City and further military action.

What we are hearing from Israeli media is that [Trump’s] new proposal would see the 48 captives being released on the first day of the deal, something that Hamas said they weren’t interested in because they would lose all their leverage with the Israelis.

There are members of the Israeli opposition saying that Israel didn’t respond to [the framework that was already on the table] because there is no plan in place for what is going to happen after the war on Gaza ends. There hasn’t been any plan from Netanyahu’s government on how they are going to move forward after a conflict that lasted almost two years.

We are getting reports from sources in Gaza hospitals that the death toll from today’s Israeli attacks has increased to 62 killed since dawn today, including 49 in Gaza City and northern Gaza.

The families of the remaining captives in Gaza say that Donald Trump’s proposal for a deal to bring their loved ones back home represents a “breakthrough”.

“The personal guarantee of the President of the United States is a historic step without precedent. Such an agreement would advance a broader regional settlement, secure the release of all hostages, allow soldiers and reservists to return home to rebuild their families and livelihoods, and lay the foundation for Israel’s security – ending a war that has dragged on for nearly two years,” the group said in a statement on X.

Their comments come after Trump claimed that Israel had already accepted his terms for a deal to bring the captives home and end the Gaza war, saying that “It is time for Hamas to accept as well.”

According to Israeli news N12, under the agreement, Hamas would free all the remaining 48 captives on the first day of the truce in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel and negotiate an end to the war during a ceasefire in the enclave.

Israel’s prime minister has claimed that about 100,000 Palestinians have so far left Gaza City, according to Israeli media reports, as the military pushes forward with plans to seize the city.

Benjamin Netanyahu also said the army was “eliminating terrorist infrastructure and nefarious terrorist high-rises.”

Israel has not provided evidence to corroborate its claim that Hamas is using residential towers to its military advantage. Its attacks on residential buildings in the city have displaced thousands since its latest campaign began.

In a Truth Social online platform, the US president claims that Israel has already accepted his terms for a deal to bring the Israeli captives home and end the Gaza war, saying that “It is time for Hamas to accept as well”.

This post appears to confirm reports that the US has conveyed a new ceasefire proposal to the Israelis that would end the war quickly.

“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,” Trump wrote. “This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”

The US president has previously, as recently as late last month, promised an end to the war with his trademark bombast. But his statements have not materialised into a ceasefire or even the free flow of humanitarian aid to a Palestinian population suffering under a punishing Israeli blockade.

The Trump administration has supplied Israel with billions of dollars in weapons and rejected international efforts to recognise a Palestinian state.

This is what Axios has reported, citing two unnamed sources with “direct knowledge” of the matter:

• White House envoy Steve Witkoff sent a proposal to Hamas through Israeli activist Gershon Baskin for the release of all 48 Israeli captives in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of 2,500-3,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
• After the ceasefire is declared, negotiations will immediately begin on the terms for ending the war – including Israel’s demands for Hamas to disarm and Hamas’s demand for a final and complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.
• The proposal emphasised that if Hamas responds to the initiative, US President Donald Trump will work actively to end the war and that the ceasefire will continue as long as negotiations are under way on the terms for ending the war.
• The Israeli official said that the proposal to Hamas included a message that if the group does not respond to the proposal, the alternative will be a large-scale Israeli operation in Gaza.

The Israeli Air Force has said the failure to stop a drone strike claimed by Yemen’s Houthis that hit the Ramon Airport, in southern Israel, was due to human error.

An investigation found the raid was detected but that air defence operatives failed to classify it as a threat, the Times of Israel reported.

The Israeli newspaper said it attributed the mistake to human error rather than a failure of the aerial defence system, which is among the most advanced in the world.