President Donald Trump has pressed for Israel and Hamas to clinch a ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza.
Trump fired off an all-caps demand fire in a Truth Social post at 1:19 a.m. ET Sunday: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT.”
Newsweek has reached out to Hamas and Israeli authorities for comment.
A U.S.-brokered first-stage ceasefire deal agreed in January fell apart in March, as negotiators failed to nail down a second stage of the agreement and Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza.
Trump has styled himself a peacemaker, pushing for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and its conflict with Iran, as well as between India and Pakistan and Russia and Ukraine.
A total of 50 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip of the 251 people abducted by militants from the Palestinian group Hamas during its unprecedented October 7 attacks in 2023— surprise assaults on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people.
Israel then launched large-scale operations that have devastated the territory and its roughly 2 million inhabitants. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 56,400 people have been killed in the strip, according to reporting by the Associated Press. This figure does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Trump had told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday he believed a ceasefire could materialize “within the next week.”
Meanwhile, the US has issued a fresh Middle East ‘Do Not Travel’ warning amid uncertainty over hostage and ceasefire deals.
“I think it’s close,” Trump said. “I just spoke with some of the people involved. It’s a terrible situation.”
Israeli media reported on Saturday that officials involved in Israel’s negotiations on a hostage deal and a ceasefire for Gaza did not share Trump’s optimism on how quickly agreements could be signed. An unnamed senior Hamas official told the BBC on Thursday that mediators had doubled down on efforts to secure deals, but progress was elusive.
A person with knowledge of the discussions, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told Newsweek on Friday an “agreement is very possible,” adding Trump was trying to convince Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu that “the time is right” to ink a deal, “now that they have finished with the issue of Iran.”
Israel carried out strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and personnel, as well as a host of other military targets, this month. Tehran responded with its own attacks on Israel. The U.S. homed in on three of Iran’s major nuclear sites in its own strikes early local time on June 22. Trump announced shortly after Iran attacked the U.S.’s biggest military base in the Middle East on Monday that Israel and Iran had agreed on a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE,” bringing what he termed the “12-day war” to an end.
What People Are Saying
Trump said during the NATO summit in The Hague earlier this week: “I think great progress is being made on Gaza.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir on Friday: “The operation in Gaza is the main arena. In the near future, we will reach the lines we defined for the current phase as part of operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots.’ From there, operational options will be developed and presented to the political echelon.”
“We will continue to act with determination in order to achieve the two main objectives of the war—the return of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” he added.
Hamas Political Bureau member and spokesperson Basem Naim, responding to a ceasefire proposal on May 30: “Upon careful examination, it is clear that the Israeli response fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation.”
What Happens Next
The person familiar with the ceasefire discussions told Newsweek that Trump was seeking a lasting end to the war between Israel and Hamas, going further than the 60-day truce set out by the latest U.S. proposal.
Newsweek