Trump urges Hamas to ‘move quickly’ on Gaza peace plan

President Trump hailed an apparent reduction in Israeli military strikes on Gaza, as U.S. negotiators travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian, Qatari and Hamas negotiators in a bid to end the two-year conflict.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump urged Hamas to “move quickly” to take advantage of the latest respite in Israel’s combat operations, insisting he would “not tolerate delay” from the group, and warning that, absent a swift agreement, “all bets will be off.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he hopes Hamas will have returned all remaining hostages by Oct. 13 — the end of an upcoming Jewish holiday.

A hospital official seemed to confirm Saturday that Israel’s bombing of Gaza City had “significantly subsided” after weeks of intensive strikes on the devastated territory’s largest urban center.

However, the Shifa Hospital director, Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, told the Associated Press that medical teams had nonetheless recorded the deaths of at least five Palestinians, and NPR’s Anas Baba noted at least three airstrikes overnight into Saturday.

Earlier this week, the White House unveiled a 20-point peace plan, to which Hamas subsequently agreed, at least in part.

One of the initial measures was a requirement for the group to immediately release all remaining hostages within three days of the plan’s implementation.

Following Hamas’ public acceptance of that provision, Trump said Friday that Israel “must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza” to allow the group to fulfill that obligation to release hostages.

Meanwhile, facing mounting international and domestic pressure, Netanyahu issued a rare late-night statement on Friday, the Jewish Sabbath, that acknowledged a commitment to end the war in line with Trump’s plans.

Israeli leaders ordered the country’s military to reduce its activity in Gaza “to a minimum” and to carry out defensive actions only, a person briefed by an Israeli official told NPR. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.

Though Israeli forces will continue to encircle Gaza City, this lull in combat operations is intended to allow Hamas members to locate the 48 remaining hostages, the Israeli military said, with fewer than half of those estimated to be still alive.

Since many of the hostages have died, Hamas officials have warned that locating and digging up the remains may take longer than the 72 hours allotted.

U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said he will travel to Egypt to head the American negotiating team, accompanied by Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner.

Those talks will likely focus on the positioning of Israeli forces during a phased withdrawal from Gaza, humanitarian aid, and the scale of a prisoner exchange of Palestinians held in Israeli detention, in return for the hostages still inside Gaza.

Hamas has also signaled that for discussions to succeed it will require approval from other Palestinian factions, including Gaza’s second largest armed group, Islamic Jihad, which this week eventually backed Hamas’ acceptance of Trump’s latest plan.

Protests demanding an end to the war have occurred across Europe, as Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll since the war began — including both combatants and civilians — has topped 67,000.

Israel’s main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, wrote on social media that he backs Trump’s proposal and would support the Israeli government’s implementation of it.

A group speaking for the families of some hostages said the chances of their loved ones returning “has never been closer.”

NPR’s Emily Feng contributed reporting from Tel Aviv and Anas Baba contributed reporting from Gaza.