Donald Trump's ‘enduring peace’ call amid Israel's ‘targeted’ airstrike in Gaza
Donald Trump said that an international force would be deployed soon, following a meeting with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday called for an “enduring peace” in Gaza, while informing that efforts to stabilise the war-torn enclave were advancing.
Trump's remarks came on a day when the Israeli defence forces said that they had conducted a “targeted” airstrike in Gaza against an operative of the Islamic Jihad planning an attack against Israel.
The US President said that an international force would be deployed soon, following a meeting with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during a refuelling stop in Doha en route to his visit to East Asia.
“This should be an enduring peace,” Trump told reporters when asked about the situation in Gaza.
A US-backed ceasefire is in force between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, more than two years after the war in the Gaza Strip began, but each side has accused the other of violations.
"It'll hold. It's going to hold. If it doesn't hold, Hamas will not be hard to take care of. It will be very quick. But I hope it holds for Hamas, too, because they gave us their word on something. They said they took out gang members. I hope that's right. But, they gave us their word on something. So, I think it's going to (hold) and if it doesn't then they'll have a very big problem," Trump said on the ceasefire.
He said Qatar would be willing to contribute peace-keeping troops if needed, and he praised the Gulf nation as a great ally and key player in regional stability.
Israel's fresh airstrike in Gaza
Israeli forces said on Saturday that they carried out a "targeted strike" on an individual in central Gaza who was planning to attack Israeli troops.
Israel said it had targeted a member of Islamic Jihad. The Palestinian militant group did not immediately comment on the assertion.
According to a Reuters report, a drone struck a car and set it ablaze. Local medics said four people had been wounded, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
The report added that Israeli tanks had shelled eastern areas of Gaza City, the Gaza Strip's biggest urban area. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on that attack.
Several Israeli media sites said Israel, in a reversal of a policy of barring entry to foreign forces, had allowed Egyptian officials into the Gaza Strip to help locate the bodies of hostages taken captive in the Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, that triggered the war.
