One week after President Donald Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, announced a breakthrough in efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, there is still no ceasefire.
But negotiators representing both sides are reconvening in Cairo for talks that are anticipated to be urgent and swift, amid ongoing pressure from Trump to bring an end to the war after two years.
Whether they will result in a ceasefire and the release of the 48 Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza is not yet clear. Both sides have indicated concerns about elements of Trump’s proposal.
But Netanyahu said in an address on Saturday night that he hoped to announce the return of the hostages “in the coming days,” potentially even during the Sukkot holiday that begins Monday night.
He faces sharp pressure to come to an agreement. Trump, who sees achieving peace in the Middle East as crucial to his bid for a Nobel Peace Prize, publicly demanded that Israel stop bombing in Gaza City on Friday after Hamas offered a partial and conditional assent to his ceasefire proposal. Israel reportedly scaled back but did not fully halt its operations there.
Trump also shared multiple pictures from the weekly Saturday night Tel Aviv demonstration calling for the hostages’ release, which also functions largely as an anti-Netanyahu protest. Trump, who has a longstanding interest in crowd sizes, did not comment on the pictures, but he cited the large numbers of people in the streets in Israel as evidence that Israelis want the war to end during his joint appearance with Netanyahu.
The banner unfurled at this week’s protest marking the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that began the war was meant as a direct appeal to Trump, according to the main advocacy group representing the hostage families. It read: “It’s now or never.”
Trump also shared without comment a story in the New York Times, a media outlet that Trump has previously maligned, about how anger over Israel’s strike on Qatar, which failed to kill Hamas’ top brass, had placed new pressure on Netanyahu. Last week, Trump pressed Netanyahu to apologize directly for the strike, successfully demanded that Israel commit not to striking in Qatar again and issued an executive order guaranteeing security defenses if Qatar faces new strikes.
Later on Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he understood that talks over the weekend, focused on getting Hamas to sign on fully to the peace proposal, had been “very successful, and proceeding rapidly.”
Negotiators would head to Egypt on Monday, he said, to hash out the final details. He expressed optimism about their direction — but reiterated threats about what could happen if they fail.
“I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,” he said. “I will continue to monitor this Centuries old ‘conflict.’ TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE OR, MASSIVE BLOODSHED WILL FOLLOW — SOMETHING THAT NOBODY WANTS TO SEE!”
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