Key Points
- Trump has issued “last warning” to Hamas to accept a ceasefire and hostage deal.
- Israel is considering the proposal seriously, according to Israeli media reports.
- Fighting has escalated in Gaza City and civilians are being ordered to evacuate.
Israel said it would ramp up airstrikes on Gaza on Monday in a "mighty hurricane", to serve as a last warning to Hamas that it will destroy the enclave unless fighters accept a demand from United States President Donald Trump to free all hostages and surrender.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz wrote on X: "A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the terror towers will shake."
Katz's post appeared before reports of a shooting at a bus stop in Jerusalem that killed five people. Hamas praised the attackers.
Trump has issued what he described as his "last warning" to Hamas, pressing the Palestinian militant group to accept a new ceasefire and hostage deal.
Hamas said it was studying the latest US ceasefire proposal, delivered on Sunday.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: "The Israelis have accepted my terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one."
According to a senior Israeli official, the latest US proposal for Gaza calls for Hamas to return all 48 remaining living and dead hostages on the first day of a ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held to end the war.
Of the 48 hostages thought still to be in Gaza, about 20 are believed to remain alive.
In exchange, Israel would free thousands of Palestinians and agree to hold negotiations aimed at ending the war permanently.
An Israeli official confirmed the proposal was under serious consideration, though gave no further details.
Hamas has long said it intended to hold onto at least some hostages until negotiations were complete.
It said in a statement it was committed to releasing all hostages with a "clear announcement of an end to the war" and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
UN condemns Israel for 'mass killing' of Palestinians
The United Nations human rights chief condemned Israel on Monday for its "mass killing" of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and "hindering of sufficient lifesaving aid", saying the country had a case to answer before the International Court of Justice.
Volker Türk, who heads the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, stopped short of describing the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, as hundreds of UN staff had urged him to do.
But in his opening address to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Türk expressed horror at what he called "the open use of genocidal rhetoric" and "disgraceful dehumanisation" of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials.
"Israel's mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza; its infliction of indescribable suffering and wholesale destruction; its hindering of sufficient lifesaving aid and the ensuing starvation of civilians; its killing of journalists; and its commission of war crime upon war crime, are shocking the conscience of the world," said Türk.
"Israel has a case to answer before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the evidence continues to mount," Türk said, referring to the ICJ's ruling in January that Israel had a legal obligation to prevent acts of genocide.
Israel's delegation to the UN in Geneva said it would respond to a request for comment shortly.
Israel has previously rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to self-defence following the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
Intensified fighting in Gaza City
Israeli forces have now advanced to the outskirts of Gaza City, only a few kilometres from the centre.
Over the weekend, residents received evacuation warnings for high-rise buildings Israel claimed were being used by Hamas.
Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City on Sunday. Source: AAP / AP / Yousef Al Zanoun
Among at least 12 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza on Monday was Osama Balousha, a journalist for Palestinian media, medics said.
Nearly 250 journalists have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to Palestinian authorities, making it by far the world's deadliest war for news media in living memory
Israel bars all foreign reporters from Gaza, so all journalists killed there have been Palestinians.
Palestinian officials say Israel has deliberately targeted some journalists, which Israel denies.
Tens of thousands of civilians remaining in Gaza City have been ordered to move south. Many are heading to Khan Younis, where vast numbers are already crammed into makeshift encampments along the coast.
"We want a ceasefire before Gaza City is turned into ruins like Rafah," said resident Emad, who declined to give his surname. "How long is this going to go on? How many lives are going to be wasted? Enough is enough."
The war has grown increasingly unpopular among Israelis, too.
On Saturday night, tens of thousands of protesters joined families of hostages at rallies, calling for an end to the war and demanding the release of the hostages.
Hamas led an attack on southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza.
Most of the hostages were released in ceasefires in November 2023 and January-March 2025, but the group has held on to others as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
Israel's assault has reduced much of the enclave to rubble and caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
Nearly 63,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, according to health officials in the enclave.
Six more Palestinians, including two children, have died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Monday, raising deaths from such causes to at least 393 people, most in the past two months.
Israel, which controls all supplies into Gaza, says the extent of hunger there has been exaggerated and the reported deaths are due to other causes.
Throughout the conflict, efforts to negotiate an end to the war have faltered over Israel's condition that Hamas free all hostages and surrender.
Hamas says it will not lay down its arms until Palestinians have an independent state.
