Smoke billows following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, on October 2, 2025, as pictured from Nuseirat in central Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
The proposal, backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
That would be followed by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
“Hamas is still continuing consultations regarding Trump’s plan… and has informed mediators that the consultations are ongoing and need some time,” the official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.
Trump on Tuesday gave Hamas an ultimatum of “three or four days” to accept his plan, which has been welcomed by world powers, including Arab and Muslim nations.
Mohammad Nazzal, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement Friday that the “plan has points of concern, and we will announce our position on it soon”.
On the ground on Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency — a rescue force operating under Hamas authority — reported heavy air bombardment and artillery shelling on Gaza City.
It said Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people across the territory, including eight in Gaza City.
Palestinians walk on a coastal path northwest of Nuseirat refugee camp as they are displaced southward from Wadi Gaza following an Israeli announcement of closing Al-Rashid road towards the north of the besieged Gaza Strip on October 2, 2025. Israel’s defence minister issued a final warning for Gaza City residents to flee south on October 1, as the Palestinian Hamas movement weighed the latest US plan to end nearly two years of war in the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swathes of the territory mean AFP cannot independently verify details or casualty figures provided by the Israeli military or the civil defence.
– ‘Places of death’ –
The Israeli military is waging an air and ground offensive on the territory’s largest urban centre, from which hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee.
The UN on Friday reiterated there was no safe place in Gaza and that Israel-designated zones in the south were “places of death”.
“The notion of a safe zone in the south is farcical,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva, speaking from the Gaza Strip.
Amnesty International condemned a “catastrophic wave of mass displacement” as Israel intensified its Gaza City offensive.
The rights group said hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, many of whom had already been displaced multiple times, were being forced into “overcrowded enclaves in the south… that lack access to clean water, food, medical care, shelter and life-sustaining infrastructure”.
As the war nears the two-year mark and the death toll continues to rise, protesters around the world have railed at Israel’s interception of a flotilla carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid for Gaza.
On Friday, the organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said its last remaining boat had been intercepted and Israel’s foreign ministry said it had deported four Italian participants.
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