Israel threatened Gaza on Monday with intensified airstrikes in a "mighty hurricane," warning Hamas to release all hostages and surrender as demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump or face the enclave's destruction.
Residents said Israeli forces bombed Gaza City from the air and blew up armored vehicles in its streets. Hamas said it was studying the latest U.S. cease-fire proposal, delivered Sunday, with a warning from Trump that it was the resistance group's "last chance."
"A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today and the roofs of the ... towers will shake," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.
"This is a final warning to ... Hamas in Gaza and in the luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and lay down your weapons – or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated," he wrote.
Katz's post appeared before reports of a shooting at a bus stop in Jerusalem that killed six people. Hamas praised the attackers.
According to a senior Israeli official, the latest U.S. proposal for Gaza calls for Hamas to return all 48 remaining living and dead hostages on the first day of a cease-fire, during which negotiations would be held to end the war.
Hamas has long said it intended to hold onto at least some hostages until negotiations were complete. It said in a statement it was committed to releasing all hostages with a "clear announcement of an end to the war" and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel launched a major assault last month on Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of residents are living in the ruins, having returned after the most intense fighting of the war's early weeks nearly two years ago.
Residents of Gaza City said Israeli forces pounded several districts from the air and ground and detonated decommissioned armored vehicles laden with explosives, destroying clusters of homes in the Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, and Tuffah neighborhoods.
Among at least 12 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza on Monday was Osama Balousha, a journalist for Palestinian media, medics said.
Nearly 250 journalists have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to Palestinian authorities, making it by far the world's deadliest war for news media in living memory.
Israel bars all foreign reporters from Gaza, so all journalists killed there have been Palestinians. Palestinian officials say Israel has deliberately targeted some journalists, which Israel denies.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested a Gaza deal could come soon to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas. Earlier, he issued what he called his "last warning" to the Palestinian resistance group.
An Israeli official said that Israel was "seriously considering" Trump's proposal but did not elaborate.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion into southern Israel, causing 1,200 deaths and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza.
Most of the hostages were released in cease-fires in November 2023 and January-March 2025, but the group has held on to others as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
Israel's assault has reduced much of the enclave to rubble and caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Over 64,400 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, according to health officials in the enclave.
Six more Palestinians, including two children, have died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry said Monday, raising deaths from such causes to at least 393 people, most in the past two months.
