86 killed by Israeli attacks on Sunday as Trump pushes for ceasefire

Jun 30, 2025 News

Residents evacuate from areas of Gaza City on Sunday

(BBC) At least 86 people were killed as the result of Israeli attacks in the 24 hours before midday on Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Three children were among those killed in a strike on the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi, their parents said.

Trump on Sunday reiterated calls to “make the deal in Gaza” and “get the hostages back.”

Israel has ordered Palestinians to evacuate from parts of northern Gaza ahead of increased military action, as US President Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire deal.

People in neighbourhoods across Gaza City and Jabalia have been told to move south towards the coastal area of al-Mawasi as Israeli military operations “intensify and expand westward.”

On Saturday, Trump had said on Truth Social that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the process of negotiating a deal with Hamas “right now”.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Sunday that the Israeli military was operating in north Gaza “to eliminate terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”.

Medics and residents told Reuters that military bombardments increased in Gaza in the early hours of Sunday, destroying several houses.

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency told news outlets that at least 23 people had been killed on Sunday alone.

Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi near the southern city of Khan Younis – an area where people in the north had been told to evacuate to.

Five members of the Maarouf family, including three children, were killed.

“They bombed us while we were sleeping on the ground,” their mother Iman Abu Maarouf said. “We didn’t do anything wrong. My children were killed, and the rest are in intensive care.”

Their father Zeyad Abu Maarouf told Reuters that the family had arrived in the “safe zone” a month ago after Israel told them to go to al-Mawasi.

The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment.

The increased military action comes as mediators begin new efforts to end the war and release the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

On Thursday, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

Qatari mediators have said they hope US pressure could help to achieve a deal, following a truce between Israel and Iran that ended the 12-day conflict between the countries.

Earlier in the week, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Trump should not “intervene in a legal process of an independent state”.

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Since then, 56,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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bombing, Donald Trump, Gaza, Israel, war

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