Trump says ceasefire holds

[Twiglets1]

Reported across multiple sites that Trump said this morning that a U.S.-backed ceasefire was not at risk after Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza.

"As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back," he added.

The Israeli military confirmed the soldier's death on Wednesday. An Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces who were stationed within the so-called 'yellow line', the deployment line agreed upon in the ceasefire.

"Nothing is going to jeopardize" the ceasefire, Trump said. "You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave."

"If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated," Trump said.
"Nobody knows what happened to the Israeli soldier but they say it was sniper fire. And it was retribution for that, and I think they have a right to do that."

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-says-gaza-ceasefire-holds-israel-has-right-hit-back-if-attacked-2025-10-29/

Hopefully behind the scenes the US is working to deescalate the situation.

A show of strength by the IDF (with apparent support from Trump) will have reminded Hamas not to take the piss with the ceasefire agreement re attacking soldiers behind the "yellow line" & staging fake recoveries of hostage remains.

Sincerely hope for everyone's sake that hostilities will settle down today and that Hamas will release the body of the hostage they say they recovered yesterday (if that is true which can't be assumed).

Let’s hope so. According to some news reports 90 Palestinians already dead, plus another 100 since the ceasefire. And still no sign of the aid, which was also an agreed part of the first phase of the deal.

It's an exaggeration to say there is "no sign of the aid" and more accurate to say there is still insufficient food aid entering Gaza.

Even according to the The UN World Food Programme, (who are critical of Israel) supplies to Gaza have ramped up after the ceasefire, but are still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tonnes because only two crossings into the Palestinian territory are open. Reported in Al Jazeera on October 21st:

Approximately 750 metric tonnes of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of Israel’s devastating war that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

The spokesperson said the UN agency now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza – up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to run throughout the territory. Most are in the south and centre of the Strip.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/21/wfp-says-food-supplies-to-gaza-below-targets-urges-more-crossings-to-open

I would love to believe that the situation is under control and plenty of good is getting in, but realistically IDF lie a great deal and Trump is a fantasist. So who can say?

Not just food though is it? Medical supples, tents, fuel, etc have also not been allowed in. If you have no where to live, you are going to need shelter. Believe it or not, it gets cold at night in Palestine. A lot of Palestinians have nothing left and no money to buy things.

It's the UN World Food Programme saying approximately 750 metric tonnes of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily.

Also saying that there were 26 food distributions points open on October 21st up from just 5. It's an improvement since the ceasefire though obviously there needs to be more food and other aid getting into Gaza.

If the ceasefire fails there would be less food and other goods getting in again which makes me wonder why more people aren't criticising Hamas as well as Israel for doing things that threaten the ceasefire.

Well it’s plainly far from basically sufficient

https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/palestine-emergency

I agree it seems insufficient aid is still reaching Gaza and there are probably many people malnourished there. Not too much evidence of people dying from famine though, apart from the most vulnerable, normally sick babies & children.

If there was really "no sign of the aid" as suggested above, we would see more evidence of famine amongst the general population which thankfully we don't.

As I said before, it’s not just food that is needed. Basic shelter and fuel to cook the food is also needed. And medical supplies. These people have nothing left.

@Twiglets1What do you mean, “not much evidence ?”

Yes that is obvious that other things are needed not just food and some of the aid coming in has been in other forms such as tents etc.

By "not much evidence" of famine I mean that if you look at the many images coming out of Gaza every day - crowd scenes etc - the people generally look like they are in a normal weight range. Not overweight as many of us are in the West are but a healthy looking weight anyway.

I don’t think that’s any kind of evidence.

That's up to you but I do tend to believe the evidence of my own eyes quite a lot.

Well I read they let the tents in, but not the tent poles, thereby rendering the tents useless. These people need shelter, not to be sleeping out in the cold.

I did not read that - do you have a reputable source?

Times of Israel

The only reference I found to tent poles was dated 19th August before the ceasefire.

It was a comment made by Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. He said shelter items had been banned from entering Gaza for about five months. And suggested the Israelis could classify tents as “dual use” because they considered tent poles to have a potential military purpose.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/un-claims-israel-ordering-gazans-to-evacuate-to-areas-that-are-still-under-bombardment/

EUObserver:

Israeli authorities have rejected 94 percent of aid delivery requests from international relief organisations during the first two weeks of the current ceasefire, leaving €43m worth of critical supplies stranded at border crossings, according to 41 humanitarian groups working in Gaza.

Good news that the ceasefire holds:

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had resumed enforcing the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a series of strikes across the enclave that it said was in response to Hamas’ violations.

"Following a series of strikes, in which dozens of terror targets and terrorists were struck, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire in response to Hamas' violations," the military said.

"As part of the strikes, the IDF and ISA struck 30 terrorists holding command positions within the terrorist organisations operating in the Gaza Strip," it added.

www.middle-east-online.com/en/israeli-military-says-it-has-resumed-enforcing-gaza-ceasefire-agreement