Donald Trump has claimed that Israel is ready to agree to a peace deal with Hamas as he seeks to broker a ceasefire in the Gaza war that has claimed almost 60,000 lives, but it is unclear what conditions specifically Israel has agreed to.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday night, the US president wrote: “Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War.”
Trump’s previous claims that Israel was ready to end the war, including a ceasefire negotiated before his inauguration in January, have quickly broken down as both sides accused the other of violating agreements on prisoner exchanges.
Hamas said on Wednesday that it was reviewing Trump’s proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, while Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said any peace agreement would banish Hamas from the Gaza Strip permanently.
“There will not be a Hamas,” Netanyahu said in his first public comments since Trump proposed the ceasefire talks on Tuesday. “There will not be a Hamastan. We’re not going back to that. It’s over.”
Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on Wednesday. Israel is not believed to have sent a delegation.
US officials have supported Israel’s demand that Hamas no longer exist in Gaza as a non-negotiable in any ceasefire negotiations.
For many months, negotiators have been discussing intermittently a version of a ceasefire plan put forward by the US envoy Steve Witkoff that is close to previous Israeli proposals.
Trump’s claim came after he brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, and on the same day as Israel’s strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, reportedly met Witkoff and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
Trump wrote: “The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal. I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE.”
Trump is expected to meet Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
There was a muted reaction in Israel to Trump’s statement, with officials stressing many unresolved issues. Israel has not sent negotiating teams either to Cairo or Qatar, where the indirect talks have been taking place.
But Yedioth Ahronoth, a mass-market Israeli newspaper, reported that sources “involved in the hostage deal talks said that both Israel and Hamas were more motivated, even without clear guarantees that the war would end”.
It reported: “The gaps between the sides have not been closed, but they have decreased, and the sense is that a window of opportunity now exists that Israel would like to seize, particularly ahead of Netanyahu’s trip and the optimism that Trump has projected.”
Israel Hayom, another major newspaper, quoted an Israeli official confirming that Hamas had made concessions. “This progress was the reason that Netanyahu’s trip to Washington was brought forward,” the official told the newspaper.
Hamas played down the prospect of a deal. Taher al-Nunu, a senior official, told AFP: “So far, there has been no breakthrough.”
Trump and his aides appear to be seeking to use any momentum from US and Israeli strikes on Iran nuclear sites, as well as a ceasefire that took hold last week in that war, to secure a lasting truce in the war in Gaza.
Trump told reporters during a visit to Florida that he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza ceasefire. “We hope it’s going to happen. And we’re looking forward to it happening some time next week,” he told reporters. “We want to get the hostages out.”
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza in return for a permanent end to the conflict and a full Israeli withdrawal from the devastated territory. Israel says the war can end only if Hamas is disarmed and its leadership agrees to go into exile.
But after a poll boost in the wake of Israel’s war with Iran and with parliament close to a summer recess, Netanyahu may now feel he can risk a deal that might alienate rightwing coalition allies. The Israeli military has told him it has reached many of the objectives set in May, and successive opinion surveys show Israeli public support for a ceasefire that would return the 50 hostages still in Gaza.
The new push for a ceasefire comes after a horrific Israeli attack at al-Baqa cafe on the Gaza seafront on Monday that medical and other officials said killed between 24 and 36 Palestinians, including children.
On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed 40 people across the Gaza Strip, the health ministry said. Hospital officials said four children and seven women were among the dead.
The Israel-Gaza war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians – though experts say this is likely to be an undercount – displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and reduced much of the territory to rubble.
