US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post overnight made clear to Israel there will be no immediate strikes on Iran, instead pointing to another round of talks to reach a lasting agreement.
And it’s not just Iran where the US is actively pursuing diplomacy.
Trump has also re-invested efforts to bring about progress in Gaza — and that means putting pressure on Israel to halt its attacks there.
The Palestinian enclave remains subject to ongoing Israeli strikes, despite Trump announcing a breakthrough three days ago. In one of the latest attacks, a family of three were killed in a strike near Gaza City overnight, a Palestinian hospital director told CNN.
Hamas has said it is committed to disarmament, as Trump announced last week, but only if Israel ceases fire, among other conditions.
“The coming hours will be a test of seriousness, not intentions,” a senior Hamas official told CNN on Saturday evening.
The Hamas official said the White House had made “notable moves …. in recent hours” towards progressing the ceasefire deal reached almost ten months ago.
Mohammed Dahlan, a one-time Palestinian Authority leader in Gaza, now effectively exiled in the United Arab Emirates, wrote on Facebook that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was “working with the Israeli side to halt the attacks on Gaza.”
Dahlan’s wider influence is contested but he is seen as having remained close to various US administrations over many years.
CNN has reached out to the White House and State Department for comment.
While Netanyahu has not spoken publicly about Gaza developments since Trump’s announcement of Hamas’s promise to disarm, Israel’s Energy Minister, Eli Cohen, said there was no deal to halt attacks on Gaza and that he saw a need for Israel, which already controls 70% of the Strip, to take full control of it, in comments reported by Reuters.