Published: 09:27, July 2, 2025 | Updated: 10:58, July 2, 2025
Trump pushes for Gaza ceasefire deal
By Xinhua
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Gaza City on June 28, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (PHOTO / AFP)

HOUSTON/ADEN/GAZA - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Hamas to take a 60-day ceasefire deal, saying Israel has agreed to its necessary conditions.

"I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better -- IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE," Trump posted on Truth Social.

"Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60-Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War," Trump wrote.

"My Representatives had a long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza," he said, adding that Qatar and Egypt will deliver the final proposal.

According to a CNN report, the new proposal seeks to address some of Hamas' concerns, and Israeli hostages will be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the ceasefire.

ALSO READ: China urges immediate ceasefire, humanitarian access in Gaza

Last week, Trump told reporters that "we think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire" in Gaza, but did not provide further details at the time.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next Monday over Iran and Gaza.

It will be the third time Netanyahu has visited the White House since Trump was sworn in for his second term in January. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that ending the Israel-Hamas conflict is now a priority for Trump following Israel's strikes on Iran.

A Palestinian woman mourns near the bodies of loved ones killed during overnight Israeli strikes, on the grounds of Al-Shifa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. (PHOTO / AFP)

Also on Tuesday, at least 45 Palestinians were killed by Israeli shelling and gunfire in the Gaza Strip, Gaza's Civil Defense said, while the Israeli army announced that it had attacked 140 targets in the coastal enclave over the past 24 hours.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of Palestinians in the Jabalia area in the northern Gaza Strip, killing five people.

Five other people were killed in two airstrikes launched by Israeli drones, which targeted a house in the al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City and a gathering of Palestinians in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood in the south, according to Basal.

In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Basal said that 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks targeting residential homes and tents housing displaced persons in various parts of the city.

Also, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a school housing the displaced in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Basal.

ALSO READ: Houthi leader says 309 missiles, drones launched at Israel since March

Displaced Palestinians live in a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency, in Gaza City, June 23, 2025. (PHOTO / AP)

Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for launching a ballistic missile targeting Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel.

In a televised statement broadcast by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV, the group's military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said they had "carried out a special military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv using a hypersonic ballistic missile of the Palestine-2 type."

According to Sarea, the missile strike "successfully achieved its goal" by forcing "millions of settlers into shelters and disrupting airport operations."

Sarea also claimed that a wave of one-way unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks targeted what he described as "three sensitive sites" in Eilat, Tel Aviv, and Ashkelon.

Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire. Since then, at least 6,089 Palestinians have been killed and 21,013 others injured, according to data released by Gaza's health authorities on Saturday. The death toll of Palestinians has risen to 56,412 since when Hamas-Israel conflict erupted in October 2023, with 133,054 others wounded.