Israel steps up Gaza bombing ahead of ceasefire talks

Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell | June 30, 2025

Palestinians in northern Gaza have reported one of the worst nights of Israeli bombardment in weeks after the military issued mass evacuation orders, while Israeli officials are due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the Trump administration.

A day after US President Donald Trump urged an end to the 20-month war, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected at the White House for talks on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran, and possible wider regional diplomatic deals.

But on the ground in the Palestinian enclave there was no sign of fighting letting up.

“Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes,” said Salah, 60, a father of five children, from Gaza City on Monday.

“In the news we hear a ceasefire is near, on the ground we see death and we hear explosions.”

Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of the suburb of Zeitoun in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.

The Israeli military said it struck militant targets in northern Gaza, including command and control centres, after taking steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.

The heavy bombardment followed new evacuation orders to vast areas in the north, where Israeli forces had operated before and left behind wide-scale destruction.

Health officials in Gaza said at least 38 people had been killed on Monday. Medics said most of the casualties were hit by gunfire, but residents also reported an airstrike.

A day after Trump called to “Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back”, Israel’s strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu’s, was expected on Monday at the White House for talks on Iran and Gaza, an Israeli official said.

In Israel, Netanyahu’s security cabinet was expected to convene to discuss the next steps in Gaza.

On Friday, Israel’s military chief said the present ground operation was close to having achieved its goals, and on Sunday, Netanyahu said new opportunities had opened up for recovering the hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said mediators Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides, but no date has been set yet for a new round of truce talks.

A Hamas official said progress depends on Israel changing its position and agreeing to end the war and withdraw from Gaza. Israel says it can end the war only when Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel has agreed to a US-proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, and put the onus on Hamas.

“Israel is serious in its will to reach a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza,” Saar told reporters in Jerusalem.

The US has proposed a 60-day ceasefire and the release of half the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians. Hamas would release the remaining hostages as part of a deal that guarantees ending the war.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack that was Israel’s single deadliest day.

Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, has displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.

More than 80 per cent of the territory is now an Israeli-militarised zone or under displacement orders, according to the United Nations.