The Israeli military issued a new wave of evacuation orders in northern Gaza Sunday, gearing up for another battle against Hamas as President Trump called for the war to end and all hostages to be freed.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social platform.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to discuss the war with his advisers at a meeting later today, with officials reportedly ready to tell the premier that the army is close to reaching its objectives of eliminating Hamas.
A senior security official, however, warned that expanding the fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the 20 remaining living hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Rehovot, Israel on June 20, 2025. via REUTERS
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
Israel’s renewed campaign in Gaza has recovered the bodies of several slain hostages since the cease-fire deal ended in March and talks stalled.
In recent months, Israeli military has expanded its ground invasion of the Strip, with new evacuation orders sent out on X and by text messages on Sunday for northern Gaza.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts, where the IDF has run into repeated difficulty fully routing Hamas.
Palestinians clear sand from tents after an Israeli attack in the northern Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on June 28, 2025. AFP via Getty Images“The (Israel) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said in a statement.
Palestinian and UN officials slammed the evacuation order, which would once again displace refugees living in northern Gaza.
After the military operation began, medics and witnesses told Reuters that the IDF’s bombardments killed at least six people after hitting a slew of houses in Jabalia.
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the northern Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
Two men sit on sand mounds covering tents after an Israeli attack. AFP via Getty ImagesAn IDF soldier was also killed by an explosives device when he was deployed to the area, according to the Israeli military.
The airstrike campaign also extended to southern Gaza, where five people were killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis when the bombs hit a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said.
The escalation comes as Egyptian and Qatari mediators, backed by the US, begin a new effort to end the 20-month-old war that has left the Gaza Strip in ruins.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pose for photos outside the White House on Feb. 4, 2025. Getty ImagesA Hama official told Reuters that the terror group is ready to resume the cease-fire talks and free the hostages, but only if Israel agrees to a permanent end to the war.
Netanyahu, however, has maintained that the war will not end until Hamas is fully destroyed and Gaza no longer poses a threat to the Jewish state.
Hamas has said it would not agree to any deal that calls on the group to lay down its arms.
The impasse, which led to the breakdown of the last cease-fire deal, has yet to be resolved.
With Post wires
