Donald Trump wants to end the war in Gaza ‘as quickly as possible’, with sources reportedly saying he could announce a ceasefire ‘within the coming days’.
‘We want to see if we can stop it. And we’ve talked to Israel, we want to see if we can stop this whole situation as quickly as possible,’ the US President told reporters as he boarded Air Force One.
Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia and other news outlets in the region cited sources as saying that there is a growing likelihood that Trump will announce a ceasefire in the coming days.
It would come as part of a deal that would include the release of Israeli hostages, the anonymous ‘knowledgeable sources’ reportedly said.
Israel has been intensifying its offensive in Gaza over recent weeks, at the same time as its three-month blockade of humanitarian supplies into the war-ravaged strip has sharpened international condemnation.
Overnight Israel launched a strike on a school in the territory which had been sheltering displaced people, with rescuers saying at least 20 were killed in the attack.
Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that ‘at least 20 martyrs’ were transported to hospital, most of them children, and 60 people were wounded in the ‘horrific occupation massacre at the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school’ at dawn, where hundreds of people were sheltering, referring to Israel.
The Israeli military said it had ‘struck key terrorists who were operating within a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center embedded in an area that previously served as the ‘Faami Aljerjawi’ School’.
It claimed that ‘numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians’.
Overnight Israel launched a strike on a school in the territory which had been sheltering displaced people, with rescuers saying at least 20 were killed in the attack
‘We want to see if we can stop it. And we’ve talked to Israel, we want to see if we can stop this whole situation as quickly as possible,’ the US President told reporters
A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, May 26
The day before, Israeli strikes killed 22 people and wounded dozens more across the Palestinian territory, the Gaza civil defence agency said.
Arab and European nations gathered yesterday to seek an end to the conflict while Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called for an arms embargo on Israel.
He also called for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza ‘massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel’, describing the territory as humanity’s ‘open wound’.
It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Canada of siding with Hamas after they shared a joint statement issued last week denouncing Israel‘s ‘disproportionate’ escalation.
Monday’s joint statement had been welcomed by Hamas, who described the stance as ‘an important step’ in the right direction toward restoring the principles of international law.
At the weekend, Gaza rescuers were struggling to retrieve bodies from the rubble after a series of Israeli strikes.
In one home in Jabalia, in the north, seven people were killed and several others stuck under debris, Bassal said.
‘The civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs,’ the spokesman said.
Two more people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he said, adding that doctors were unable to save the unborn child.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18
Deadly strikes were also recorded around Deir el-Balah in the centre of the territory, Beit Lahia in the north and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
The civil defence agency said on Saturday that an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.
Israel has in recent days partially eased a blockade that was imposed on March 2, which exacerbated widespread shortages of food and medicine in Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that coordinates civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that ‘107 trucks belonging to the UN and the international community carrying humanitarian aid… were transferred’ into Gaza on Sunday.
But critics charge that this is nowhere near enough, especially as many of the aid trucks end up being looted.
The World Food Programme has called on Israel ‘to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster’, saying: ‘Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity.’
An Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip is seen from southern Israel, May 26
The head of a controversial US-backed NGO preparing to move aid into Gaza also announced his abrupt resignation on Sunday.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) executive director Jake Wood said he felt compelled to leave after determining that the organisation could not fulfil its mission in a way that adhered to “humanitarian principles”.
The GHF has vowed to distribute about 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.
But the United Nations and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, amid accusations it is working with Israel.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the overall death toll to 53,939 – most of whom are civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
