Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump's peace proposal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 57 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health officials said Thursday, as Hamas was still considering its response to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal for ending the nearly two-year war.

The plan requires Hamas to return all 48 hostages — about 20 of them thought by Israel to still be alive — give up power and disarm in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. However, the proposal, which has been accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sets no path to Palestinian statehood.

Palestinians long for the war to end but many believe the plan favors Israel, and a Hamas official told The Associated Press that some elements were unacceptable, without elaborating. Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, said certain elements require more negotiations.

At least 29 people were killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Officials there said 14 of them were killed in an Israeli military corridor where there have been frequent shootings around the distribution of humanitarian aid.

Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah said they had received 16 dead from Israeli strikes.

Doctors Without Borders said one of its occupational therapists was killed while waiting for a bus in Deir al-Balah, in a strike that seriously wounded four other people. The international charity described Omar Hayek, 42, as a “quiet man of profound kindness and professionalism.”

Hayek, who had recently fled south from Gaza City, is the 14th staffer from the organization to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, it said.

In Gaza City, health officials at Shifa Hospital said they received five bodies and several wounded people, adding that its staff are having difficulties reaching the hospital as Israel wages a major offensive aimed at occupying the city.

Other hospitals reported an additional seven deaths from Israeli fire. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only strikes militants and accuses Hamas of putting civilians in danger by operating in populated areas.

Israel has meanwhile intercepted most of the more than 40 vessels in a widely watched flotilla carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid for Palestinians and aiming to break Israel's 18-year blockade of Gaza, according to organizers.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on social media that activists on board — including Greta Thunberg and several European lawmakers — were safe and were being taken to Israel to begin “procedures” for their deportation.

In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian militant was killed and another arrested on Thursday after they carried out a car-ramming and shooting attack on an Israeli army checkpoint, the military said, adding that no soldiers were wounded.

A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that some points in the proposal agreed upon by Trump and Netanyahu are unacceptable and must be amended, without elaborating.

He said the official response will only come after consultations with other Palestinian factions. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the ongoing talks, the official said Hamas had conveyed its concerns to Qatar and Egypt.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war killed some 1,200 people while 251 others were abducted. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals.

The Trump plan would guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,200 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

Around 400,000 Palestinians have fled famine-stricken Gaza City since Israel launched a major offensive there last month. On Thursday morning, smoke could be seen in northern Gaza and people were fleeing the area headed south.

Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it was their “last opportunity” and that anyone who stayed would be considered a militant supporter.

While Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly depleted, it still carries out sporadic attacks. On Wednesday, at least seven projectiles were launched into Israel from Gaza, but all were either intercepted or fell in open areas, with no reports of casualties, the Israeli military said.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Jerusalem and Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A displaced Palestinian boy looks at smoke rising into the sky following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators flood the rail track at Milan's Cadorna railway station, Italy, late Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, after news that a Gaza-bound aid flotilla had been intercepted by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Pro-Palestinian activists march in downtown Rome late Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, after news that a Gaza-bound aid flotilla had been intercepted by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct, 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

When President Donald Trump suspended the refugee program on day one of his current administration, thousands of people around the world who'd been so close to a new life in America found themselves abandoned.

As part of Trump's crackdown on legal and illegal migration, the Republican president has upended the decades-old refugee program that has served as a beacon for those fleeing war and persecution. In October, he resumed the program but set a historic low of refugee admissions at 7,500 — mostly white South Africans.

New restrictions were announced after an Afghan national became the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members last week. The Trump administration also plans a review of refugees let in during the Democratic Biden administration. Trump's administration has cited economic and national security concerns for its policy changes.

About 600,000 people were being processed to come to the U.S. as refugees when the program was halted, according to the administration. Aside from dozens of white South Africans let in this year, only about 100 others have been admitted as a result of a lawsuit by advocates seeking to restore the refugee program, said Mevlüde Akay Alp, a lawyer arguing the case.

The Associated Press spoke to three families whose lives have been thrown into disarray because of the changing policies.

The Dawoods fled civil war in Syria and settled in northern Iraq. They hoped to find a new home that could provide better medical care for a daughter who had fallen from the fourth floor of the family’s apartment building.

After they were accepted as refugees to the U.S., son Ibrahim and his sister Ava relocated to Connecticut in November 2024. His parents and one of his brothers were scheduled to fly in January.

But just two days before they were to board their flight, mother Hayat Fatah fainted at a medical check and her departure was postponed. Mohammed, another sibling, didn't want to leave his parents behind.

Nearly a year later, he and his parents are still waiting.

In America, Ibrahim wakes up early to tutor people online before going to his job as a math teacher at a private school, and then he takes care of his sister when he gets home. He said his mother often cries when they talk because she wishes she were in America to help care for her daughter.

Chinese Christian Lu Taizhi fled to Thailand more than a decade ago, fearing persecution for his beliefs. He’s lived in legal limbo since, waiting to be resettled in the United States.

Lu said he has long admired the U.S. for what he calls its Christian character — a place where he feels he and his family “can seek freedom.”

Lu was born into a family branded as “hostile elements” by the Chinese Communist Party for its land ownership and ties to a competing political party. A teacher and poet, Lu grew interested in history banned by the Chinese state, penning tributes to the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing.

In 2004, Lu was arrested after police found poems and essays he secretly published criticizing Chinese politics and the education system. After his release, Lu became a Christian and began preaching, drawing scrutiny from local authorities.

With Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s rise to power, controls tightened. When Beijing arrested hundreds of rights lawyers in 2015, Lu took his family and fled, settling in Thailand, where they applied for refugee status with the United Nations.

Eight years later, the U.N. notified Lu the U.S. had accepted his application. But after several delays, his most recent flight was canceled shortly after Trump’s inauguration. His application has been put on hold indefinitely.

Louis arrived in the United States as a refugee in September 2024. He left his wife and two children in East Africa, hoping they could soon be reunited in the U.S.

But that dream faded a few months later with Trump's return to the presidency.

Louis, who insisted on being identified only by his first name out of concern that speaking publicly could complicate his case, was told in January that a request he had made to bring his family to the U.S. had been frozen due to changes in refugee policies.

Now, the family members live thousands of miles apart without knowing when they will be reunited. His wife, Apolina, and the children, 2 and 3 years old, are in a refugee camp in Uganda. Louis is in Kentucky.

“I don’t want to lose her, and she does not want to lose me,” said Louis, who resettled in Kentucky with the help of the International Rescue Committee.

Louis and Apolina's families applied for refugee status after fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Louis' application, initiated by his parents, was approved, Apolina's, made separately by her parents, was not.

Apolina thought that, as the wife of a refugee, it would take her no more than one year to reunite with her husband, who now works in an appliance factory and has already applied for permanent residency.

The separation hasn’t been easy for her and the children, who live in a tent in the refugee camp.

Santana reported from Washington, Kang from Beijing and Salomon from Miami. Associated Press writers Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, and Salar Salim in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Lu Taizhi, a Chinese Christian who is waiting to be resettled in the United States, points to the webpage of the International Rescue Committee, which is under maintenance and not operational in Ban Wawee village, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tian Macleod Ji)

Syrian refugee Abdulilah Amin Dawoud, 73, poses for a picture at his home in Irbil, Iraq, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)

Syrian refugee Hayat Fatah, 65, cleans dishes at her home in Irbil, Iraq, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)

Syrian refugee Mohammed Dawood, 30, left, poses for a photo with his parents, Hayat Fatah, 65, center, and Abdulilah Amin Dawoud, 73, at their home in Irbil, Iraq, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)