Trump 'not confident' Gaza deal will hold

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said Monday he was not confident a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold, despite trumpeting his diplomacy to secure it ahead of his inauguration.

Asked by a reporter as he returned to the White House whether the two sides would maintain the truce and move on in the agreement, Trump said, "I'm not confident."

"That's not our war; it's their war. But I'm not confident," Trump said.

Trump, however, said that he believed Hamas had been "weakened" in the war that began with its unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

"I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site," Trump said.

The property tycoon turned populist politician said that Gaza could see a "fantastic" reconstruction if the plan moves ahead.

"It's a phenomenal location on the sea -- best weather. You know, everything's good. It's like, some beautiful things could be done with it," he said.

Israel and Hamas on Sunday began implementing a ceasefire deal that included the exchange of hostages and prisoners.

The plan was originally outlined by then president Joe Biden in May and was pushed through after unusual joint diplomacy by Biden and Trump envoys.

Trump, while pushing for the deal, has also made clear he will steadfastly support Israel.

In one of his first acts, he revoked sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank imposed by the Biden administration over attacks against Palestinians.

The health ministry in Gaza said Tuesday that 47,107 people had been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, with the toll continuing to rise in spite of a ceasefire as new bodies were found under the rubble.

The ceasefire has held since going into effect on Sunday, bringing a halt to more than 15 months of fighting in the Palestinian territory. 

But the health ministry is finding more dead, as the truce has allowed people to comb the ruins. Other people have died from wounds received before the fighting stopped, with the territory's health system devastated by the war.

The bodies of 72 people "arrived at hospitals... over the past 24 hours", the ministry said in a statement. 

"A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulances and civil protection teams are unable to reach them," it added.

The ministry said the number of wounded had reached 111,147 since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

The ministry called on the families of people killed or missing in the war to register online to aid in the identification of bodies and to compile a more accurate death toll.

Israel has regularly questioned the credibility of the ministry's figures, although the United Nations deems them reliable.

A study in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet published in early January estimated that the number of deaths during the first month of the war was around 40 per cent higher than the official ministry figure. 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed Gaza would never again pose a threat to Israel, as a tense calm prevailed on the second day of a truce in the Palestinian territory.

Three Israeli hostages, all women, were reunited with their families after Hamas fighters handed them over on Sunday, followed by the overnight release of 90 Palestinian prisoners from an Israeli jail in the occupied West Bank.

In the war-battered Gaza Strip, displaced Palestinians set off on foot or by car to return home as trucks loaded with sorely needed humanitarian aid funnelled into the devastated territory.

The truce mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States began on Sunday, on the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration for a second term as US president.

In a video message on Monday, Netanyahu thanked Trump for helping to secure the hostage release deal and once more vowed to "return the remaining hostages... and to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel".