On Friday, Hamas said it had responded to a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce. It has also said it will free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
But Netanyahu has called for the full elimination of Hamas and asked the group to surrender, disarm, and go into exile — something it refuses to do.
While he travels to Washington, a separate Israeli negotiating team traveled to Qatar on Sunday for indirect talks with Hamas and Netanyahu said they had clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire agreement under conditions that Israel has accepted.
Inside Gaza, at least 80 were killed in Israeli strikes, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, the Director of the enclave’s field hospitals, told NBC News on Sunday. He added that the number was likely to increase due to the ongoing shelling and airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
More than 56,000 people have been killed and thousands more seriously injured since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks, according to health officials in the enclave. Some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostages that day.
Elsewhere, Israel on Sunday launched fresh strikes in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi militant group, targeting ports in Hodeida, Ras Isa, and Saif, along with the commercial ship Galaxy Leader that they hijacked in 2023.
“These ports are used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons of the Iranian regime that are used to carry out terrorist plots against the State of Israel and its allies,” an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said in a statement Sunday.
In a separate post on X, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the strikes were part of “Operation Black Flag,” adding that the Iran-backed militant group would “continue to pay a heavy price for their actions.”
“The fate of Yemen is the same as the fate of Tehran,” Katz added, referring to the Iranian regime.
But a Houthi spokesperson downplayed the Israeli attack in a statement Monday, saying that the militant group’s air defenses had “successfully countered” it by “using locally manufactured surface-to-air missiles.”
The attacks on the Iran-backed Houthis came after Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance since the 12-day war with Israel. Iranian state television showed the Supreme Leader greeting worshippers at a mosque on Saturday.