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Israel said Saturday its troops were still operating in Gaza and warned residents not to return, despite calls from the families of Israeli hostages and US president Donald Trump for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Trump issued the appeal to the key US ally after Palestinian militant group Hamas said it was ready to release all hostages and start talks on the details of his plan to end the nearly two-year war.

‘The movement announces its approval for the release of all hostages—living and remains—according to the exchange formula included in president Trump’s proposal,’ Hamas said in a Friday statement.

Trump later posted on Truth Social: ‘Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!’

A senior Hamas official said Saturday the group was ‘ready to begin negotiations immediately to finalise all issues’.

Another Hamas official said Egypt, a mediator in the truce talks, would host a conference for Palestinian factions to decide on Gaza’s post-war future.

Smoke billowed over Gaza City on Saturday, yet for the first time in months, residents felt a ceasefire was within reach as they welcomed US president Donald Trump’s call for Israel to stop bombing.

Although Trump presented his ceasefire proposal Monday, several sticking points remain. In talks with Trump, Netanyahu all but rejected the idea of Gaza being governed by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

The head of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah said Saturday that Washington’s plan for a ceasefire in Gaza was ‘full of dangers’, accusing Israel of using the proposal to achieve what it ‘failed’ to do during the war.

Naim Qassem, the leader of the Hamas-aligned militant group, suggested Israel would use the plan as pretext to take over the land and strip Palestinians of their self-determination, but said the decision of whether to accept it was ultimately Hamas’s.

‘In fact, this plan is a plan full of dangers,’ Qassem said in a speech commemorating two Hezbollah commanders killed during the group’s devastating war with Israel about a year ago.

‘President Trump’s demand to stop the war  immediately is essential to prevent serious and irreversible harm to the hostages,’ the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

But despite Trump’s appeal, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out dozens of attacks on Gaza City overnight, with nearby hospitals reporting casualties.

‘It was a very violent night, during which the [Israeli army] carried out dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza City and other areas in the Strip, despite President Trump’s call to halt the bombing,’ spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Bassal, whose agency is a rescue force which operates under Hamas authority, said 20 homes were destroyed overnight.

The Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and urged residents not to return.

‘The IDF [Israeli military] troops are still operating in Gaza City, and returning to it is extremely dangerous. For your safety, avoid returning north or approaching areas of IDF troop activity anywhere—including in the southern Gaza Strip,’ the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said on X.

The latest developments drew hopeful reactions from world leaders and organisations, with UN rights chief Volker Turk saying it was a ‘vital opportunity’ to stop bloodshed and misery in the Palestinian territory ‘once and for all’.

The World Health Organization also welcomed the plan, particularly the prospect of reconstructing hospitals.

‘The best medicine is peace,’ the UN health agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X on Saturday.

Israel said that it had deported 137 more activists who were detained while taking part in an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.

The Israeli foreign ministry said those deported were citizens of the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Jordan and several other countries.

The ministry said in a post on X that ‘137 more provocateurs of the Hamas–Sumud flotilla were deported today [Saturday] to Turkey’.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people marched through Barcelona on Saturday in support of Palestinians and demanding an end to arms trade with Israel, one of a series of protests planned across Spain.

Marching behind a huge red banner, reading: ‘Stop the genocide in Palestine. End the arms trade with Israel’, the demonstrators—who police said numbered 70,000—marched peacefully through the city centre. They are chanting slogans including ‘Boycott Israel’ and ‘Free Palestine’.