The Israel Protection Forces was ordered to halt its offensive to seize Gaza Metropolis on Saturday after US President Donald Trump stated his Gaza truce plan was accepted by Hamas and known as on Israel to cease bombing the Strip. The navy was nonetheless engaged in defensive operations and warned Palestinians to not attempt to return to the besieged metropolis, saying it remained a “harmful struggle zone.”
The order by the political echelon got here as Israel ready to dispatch ceasefire-hostage negotiators, with studies saying that talks might begin as quickly as Sunday, most certainly within the Egyptian Crimson Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. US Center East Envoy Steve Witkoff was stated to be heading to the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was stated to treat Hamas’s response as ‘primarily unfavourable,’ however noticed no possibility aside from to associate with Trump’s efforts
The Instances of Israel realized that the order to the IDF was issued after in a single day talks between Israeli and US officers and known as for navy actions to be decreased to a minimal, with troops on the bottom strictly finishing up defensive operations, together with strikes in opposition to threats to forces.
Troops proceed to encircle Gaza Metropolis. The which means of the order is that Israeli troops working in Gaza Metropolis wouldn’t be advancing additional, however wouldn’t be withdrawing both. The IDF dispatched further Israeli Air Drive drones to watch the world to make sure troops don’t come beneath assault amid the pause in offensive exercise.
The Hamas civil protection company reported “dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza Metropolis and different areas within the Strip,” destroying 20 properties and killing a minimum of 4 folks in Gaza Metropolis’s Tuffah neighborhood and two kids within the space of Khan Younis within the Strip’s south.
A Palestinian man transports buckets of water subsequent to a coastal path northwest of Nuseirat refugee camp, within the Gaza Strip, October 4, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
The figures couldn’t be verified, nor was it clear when the strikes passed off in relation to Trump’s name for Israel to cease bombing Gaza.
The IDF on Saturday morning additionally warned Palestinians in opposition to approaching troops in all elements of Gaza or returning to Gaza Metropolis, whose residents had been urged to evacuate en masse forward of the IDF operation to seize the town.
“IDF troops are nonetheless encircling Gaza Metropolis, and returning there’s very harmful,” stated the navy’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee, including that the world north of the Wadi Gaza stream is a “harmful fight zone.”
“On your security, keep away from returning north or approaching areas the place IDF troops are working anyplace within the Strip — even in its south,” he added.
Displaced Palestinians have a look at smoke rising into the sky following an Israeli navy strike in Gaza Metropolis, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Netanyahu shocked
Trump said late Friday that Hamas was “prepared for an enduring PEACE,” after the phobia group welcomed elements of his proposal, whereas hinting at resistance to different sections and saying additional negotiations have been wanted to finalize particulars of the hostage change.
“Israel should instantly cease the bombing of Gaza, in order that we are able to get the hostages out safely and rapidly!” Trump wrote Friday on Fact Social, reportedly stunning Netanyahu, who Channel 12 stated thought of the Hamas response a rejection of the ceasefire plan.
“They see it primarily as a unfavourable response,” the Channel 12 report stated citing folks in Netanyahu’s circle. “However they’re going together with Trump’s efforts as a result of they see no different possibility.”
Channel 12 reported that folks near Netanyahu have been briefing that the prime minister was shocked by Trump’s immensely constructive response to what was a conditional and ambiguous Hamas acceptance of his September 29 proposal.
Netanyahu convened an emergency session assembly in a single day after Trump’s assertion, however didn’t embrace far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, Hebrew media reported
The unsourced studies revealed by a number of retailers stated that the assembly was attended by safety chiefs, Protection Minister Israel Katz, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. The studies stated that Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who oppose ending the struggle, weren’t invited.
The Channel 12 report additionally famous that Netanyahu has a political curiosity in being seen to be consenting to maneuver forward reluctantly, moderately than enthusiastically, given his coalition’s two far-right events’ agency opposition to ending the struggle.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) shakes arms with US President Donald Trump after a information convention within the State Eating Room of the White Home, Washington, DC, September 29, 2025. (AP Photograph/ Alex Brandon)
The report stated that the truth that Trump has already pressed Israel into halting its offensive operations in Gaza signifies that Israel has an curiosity in rapidly finalizing the important first stage of the deal, which offers for the discharge of all hostages within the first 72 hours of the settlement — each as a result of Israel desires these hostages freed and since it will wish to resume offensive operations immediately if Hamas reneges or performs for time.
Channel 12 stated the evaluation in Israel is that Hamas was more likely to elevate objections and search assurances relating to additional components of the settlement, notably relating to post-war Gaza, in the course of the soon-to-be-convened talks on the preliminary section of hostage releases and IDF withdrawals, and that that is more likely to “additional complicate the method.”
Trump introduced the plan on Monday in a joint press convention on the White Home with Netanyahu, who endorsed the proposal. Following Trump’s Friday submit, Netanyahu’s workplace stated in a uncommon Shabbat assertion in a single day that it was “ready for the fast implementation of the primary stage of Trump’s plan for the fast launch of all of the hostages.”
“We are going to proceed to work in full cooperation with the president and his crew to finish the struggle in accordance with the rules laid out by Israel, which correspond with Trump’s imaginative and prescient for ending the struggle,” stated Netanyahu’s workplace, with out addressing Trump’s name to cease bombing Gaza.
The IDF stated in an announcement quickly afterward that, “per the orders of the political echelon,” Chief of Employees Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir instructed troops to gear up “for the implementation of the primary stage of Trump’s plans to free the hostages.”
IDF troops seen working within the Gaza Strip in a picture revealed October 3, 2025. (Israel Protection Forces)
With out saying what the order entailed, the military stated Zamir issued the order after assembly with high generals for “a particular situational evaluation in mild of the developments.”
“The safety of our forces is of supreme significance, and all of the IDF’s capabilities will probably be allotted to Southern Command to defend our forces,” stated the navy.
The assertion appeared to substantiate that the navy was ordered to hold out solely defensive operations and halt its operation to take over Gaza Metropolis.
“The chief of workers emphasised that in mild of the operational sensitivity, forces should reveal elevated readiness and consciousness. Likewise, the necessity for a fast response to take away any menace was clarified,” the assertion added.
Three IDF divisions have been finishing up an offensive in Gaza Metropolis in current weeks. Two extra divisions have been conducting defensive operations within the Strip’s north and south.
Talks to be hosted by Egypt
Hebrew media reported that Israel’s hostage-ceasefire negotiators have been ordered to organize to depart for talks that might begin as quickly as Sunday. Hebrew media stated the talks would most certainly be hosted by Egypt.
The studies stated Witkoff was on his option to Egypt, and that Israel’s negotiating crew will probably be headed by Dermer.
A senior Hamas official additionally stated that Egypt will arrange a convention for Palestinian factions to resolve on the post-war way forward for the Gaza Strip.
Egypt will host an “intra-Palestinian dialogue on Palestinian unity and the way forward for Gaza, together with the administration of the Gaza Strip,” the official advised AFP.
In preparation for “accelerated negotiations” with Hamas, Israeli safety officers have begun to make an inventory of the Palestinian prisoners to be launched, and negotiators have been drawing out maps of Israel’s withdrawal, whose dimensions should not but agreed upon, Channel 12 reported.
In accordance with Trump’s plan, Israel is to withdraw in three phases, the primary of which might be “to organize for a hostage launch” and the following two of which might come as a transitional authority takes management of Gaza.
Folks have a look at pictures of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, in Jerusalem, October 4, 2025. The Hebrew signal reads, “don’t overlook us.” (AP Photograph/Ohad Zwigenberg)
With out citing a supply, the Channel 12 report stated Israel needed the main target of the talks to be on the hostage launch and to delay to a later stage the names of the terrorists to be launched, the IDF withdrawal strains and the which means of the ceasefire.
Nevertheless, Israel was conscious that Hamas doubtless would attempt to hyperlink the primary section to contentious points just like the demilitarization of Gaza or post-war authorities.
An unnamed Israeli official quoted by Channel 12 stated “the small print are comparatively easy, there isn’t any intention to get dragged into a protracted negotiation.”
The official additionally stated Israel would “present understanding” relating to technical points stopping Hamas from returning all 48 remaining captives inside 72 hours of the start of a ceasefire, as stipulated by Trump’s proposal.
“So long as all of the residing hostages are returned in that point,” stated the official as a caveat.
The official additionally famous that ought to the hostage deal fall via, Israel would resume the operation in Gaza.
Demonstrators elevate placards throughout a protest calling for a ceasefire and the return of hostages from Gaza, in entrance of the Likud celebration constructing in Tel Aviv on September 30, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Hamas has repeatedly stated IDF presence and different restraints might forestall the phobia group from returning all of the hostages instantly.
In its response to Trump on Friday, Hamas stated the discharge of the hostages can be topic to “area situations,” echoing its earlier statements. Senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk advised Al Jazeera after Hamas’s assertion on Friday that releasing all 48 captives in 72 hours was “unrealistic.”
Nevertheless, Hamas accepted the hostage change components, which might see Israel, in change for the captives, launch 250 Palestinians serving life phrases in Israel; 1,700 Gazans detained by Israel for the reason that Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaz struggle; and the stays of 15 slain Gazans for every one of many slain hostages, of whom there are a minimum of 26, in keeping with the IDF.
The fear group stated it was ready to instantly “talk about the small print” with mediators — apparently a reference to the still-undetermined identities of the Palestinians to be launched.
Additionally Saturday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas that additionally holds hostages, endorsed Hamas’s response to the US plan, a transfer that might assist pave the best way for the discharge of the captives.
“Hamas’s (response) to Trump’s plan represents the place of the Palestinian resistance factions, and the Islamic Jihad participated responsibly within the consultations that led to this choice,” the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad, which is smaller than Hamas however seen as extra hardline, stated in an announcement.
The Hamas assertion didn’t handle the important thing concern of Hamas’s disarmament, which the US and Israel demand however the terror group has rejected. Hamas additionally indicated that it will partake in a future “complete Palestinian nationwide framework,” apparently clashing with the Trump plan’s stipulation that the phobia group play no function, direct or in any other case, in Gaza’s post-war authorities.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
