Israel and Hamas have both recommitted to the ceasefire plan brokered by US president Donald Trump since Sunday\u2019s flare-up in which a Palestinian attack that killed two soldiers prompted an Israeli bombardment killing at least 28 people in Gaza.<\/p>\n
However, with even the first stages of the truce shaken by repeated flashes of violence, including yesterday, it was far from clear whether the US will be able to keep pressure on the two sides and maintain momentum to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
The latest events reflected the stumbling blocks to keeping the long-sought ceasefire from unravelling and securing a lasting peace after two years of war in Gaza. Key questions of Hamas disarming, further Israeli troop pullbacks and future governance of the Palestinian enclave remain unresolved.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Palestinians pray over the bodies of people who were killed in an Israeli military strike on Sunday, during their funeral at Awda Hospital, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Abdel Kareem Hana)<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – October 21st<\/p>\n
Mr Trump, keeping pressure on both Hamas and Israel as he seeks to salvage the signature foreign policy achievement of the first year of his second term, said yesterday the US was taking many steps to maintain the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
He told reporters the \u201cHamas situation\u201d would be handled quickly but that he had not told Israel to \u201cgo in and take care of it\u201d. He said while Hamas was in violation of the agreement, he did not believe its leadership was responsible but that it was facing \u201csome rebellion\u201d in its ranks.<\/p>\n
If Hamas leaders do not straighten it out, \u201cwe\u2019re going to eradicate them if we have to\u201d, Mr Trump said at the White House.<\/p>\n
But he insisted such actions would not involve US troops on the ground.<\/p>\n
During their visit that began yesterday, the US envoys, Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, were expected to try to shore up the truce then start talks on the next, more difficult, phase of the 20-step plan.<\/p>\n
US vice-president JD Vance is also due to visit Israel today, with Netanyahu saying the pair would discuss regional challenges and opportunities.<\/p>\n
High-level US diplomacy in the region, with talks also due later yesterday with Hamas in Egypt, underscored the priority Mr Trump has placed on cementing the ceasefire after proclaiming last week the deal heralded \u201cthe historic dawn of a new Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Palestinian medics said three more people had been killed by Israeli tank fire near the \u201cyellow line\u201d inside Gaza demarcating Israel\u2019s initial military pullback from the main populated areas.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said forces had fired at militants who crossed that line, which it started marking with concrete barriers and yellow poles about every 200 metres.<\/p>\n
Gaza City residents reported confusion over the line\u2019s location due to the lack of a visible boundary. \u201cThe whole area is in ruins. We saw the maps, but we can\u2019t tell where those lines are,\u201d said Samir (50), who lives in Tuffah.<\/p>\n
Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner\u2019s visit to Israel, aimed at discussions on the next phase of Mr Trump\u2019s complex ceasefire plan, was scheduled before Sunday\u2019s flare-up in violence, according to US and Israeli sources.<\/p>\n
Israel is unlikely to publicise any progress in the talks until the remains of more hostages are returned. The Red Cross received the body of another hostage from Hamas yesterday and transferred it to the Israeli military, Netanyahu\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Israel believes Hamas could hand over up to five more bodies immediately. Other bodies among 15 still in Gaza may be hard to recover because of destruction in the enclave.<\/p>\n
Egypt was due to host talks in Cairo last night with Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas\u2019 exiled Gaza chief, over ways to follow up on implementing the ceasefire, the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n
A Palestinian official close to the talks said the group\u2019s delegation would discuss formation of a technocratic body to run Gaza without Hamas representation.<\/p>\n
Hamas and other allied factions reject any foreign administration of Gaza, as envisaged in the Trump plan, and have so far resisted calls to lay down arms, which may complicate implementation of the deal.<\/p>\n
Israel said it launched strikes across the enclave in response to a Palestinian attack that had killed two soldiers operating inside the agreed deployment line in Rafah in southern Gaza.<\/p>\n
Hamas\u2019 armed wing said it was unaware of clashes in Rafah and had not been in contact with groups there since March.<\/p>\n
Hamas has detailed what it calls a series of violations by Israel that it says killed 46 people and stopped essential supplies from reaching the enclave.<\/p>\n
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said any Hamas militants in areas of Gaza still under Israeli control must leave immediately and anyone remaining beyond the yellow line would be targeted without warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel and Hamas have both recommitted to the ceasefire plan brokered by US president Donald Trump since Sunday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[7407,9,10,356,13,14,68,69,6,71,11,12,15,16,5,72,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-136070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaza","15":"tag-hamas","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-palestine","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news","28":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}