President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed optimism that a new deal to release hostages held by Hamas could come together “during the week,” ahead of his scheduled White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I think there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas… during the coming week,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington following the July 4th weekend. He noted that the United States is “working on a lot of things” with Israel, including what he described as a “probably permanent deal with Iran.”
Trump also repeated his earlier claims that U.S. strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities during the recent 12-day Iran-Israel conflict.
Netanyahu, departing for Washington on Sunday night, said he would meet Trump and other top U.S. officials to discuss advancing the negotiations. “We are working to reach this deal under the terms we have agreed to,” the prime minister told reporters, adding that Israel remained committed to destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
“Twenty living hostages remain and 30 who are fallen. I am determined, we are determined, to bring back all of them,” Netanyahu said. He insisted Israel would not allow Hamas to maintain a foothold that could encourage future attacks.
The high-stakes diplomacy comes as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas resumed Sunday in Qatar, following Hamas’s partial acceptance of a hostage-ceasefire framework Trump said Israel had agreed to last week. But Palestinian sources told Reuters early Monday that talks were inconclusive so far, in part because the Israeli delegation lacked authority to finalize terms.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group had lost control over roughly 80% of Gaza and “barely anything” remains of its military structure. He described the group’s leadership as decimated and its ability to enforce order as collapsing.
A proposed ceasefire plan, details of which were shared with the Associated Press by a person familiar with the talks, envisions a 60-day pause in fighting. In return, Hamas would hand over 10 living and 18 dead hostages, while Israeli forces would pull back to a buffer zone near Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt. U.N. agencies and the Palestinian Red Crescent would distribute humanitarian aid during the pause, according to the draft.
Negotiations on a permanent ceasefire would follow, but the proposal does not guarantee an end to the war — a sticking point Hamas continues to demand. The text says Trump himself would “guarantee” Israel’s adherence to halting operations for the 60-day period and personally announce the deal if concluded.
Netanyahu underscored before departing that any new deal must not allow Hamas to regroup. “We will not allow a situation that encourages more kidnappings, more murders, more beheadings, more invasions,” he said.
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6 Responses
The Chazon Ish described Neturei Karta as:
“Jews from before Matan Torah,“
by which he meant that their zeal
was not shaped by the ways of the Torah.
SOURCE: Torah Tavlin, 2009 July 11, Parshat Pinchas
All 4 quotes shown below are from the article titled:
“Orthodox Slam Neturei Karta Holocaust Conference Attendance”
by Michal Lando, 2007/01/12, found in The Jewish Herald:
{1} “The participation of the Neturei Karta
in a Holocaust denial conference held in
Teheran last month continues to draw the
ire of Jews, but particularly the Charedim
[very Orthodox] who feel their credibility
and image was threatened by the actions of
the small anti-Zionist group.
The latest show of opposition came Sunday
when hundreds of Jews, mostly Orthodox,
protested in Monsey, N.Y., where the
Neturei Karta have one of their headquarters.”
{2} “Since the conference in Teheran in December,
some of the most vocal opposition in New York to
the Neturei Karta’s attendance has come from
ultra Orthodox groups such as the Satmar…”
{3} “Rabbi Avi Shafran [Orthodox], Director of
\Public Affairs for Agudath Israel of America [said]:
“We are hoping that the media realize this is an aberration.”
{4} “…the Orthodox community has done everything possible
to distance themselves from the radical group.”
A family checked into the Park House Hotel in Boro Park last week under an assumed name (we now know it was the wife’s maiden name). We did not know the true identity of this family, who paid in cash for their stay through Motzei Shabbos.
On Friday afternoon someone recognized the head of the family as being none other than Mr. Moshe Arye Friedman, who recently traveled to Iran with members of Neturei Karta to attend the notorious Holocaust denial conference there.
When we were informed as to his true identity we asked Mr. Friedman to leave, but he refused. We checked with the police and were advised that since he had paid for his stay, we had no legal cause to put him out.
A demonstration outside the hotel against Mr. Friedman caused great angst to our other guests, to many prospective guests, and to neighborhood residents.
We wish to make clear that had we known who Mr. Friedman was, we would not have taken his reservation, nor would we have accepted him as a guest in our hotel.
Israel Tyberg, Manager
Park House Hotel, Brooklyn, NY
SOURCE: Letter To The Editor, titled “Unwelcome Guest”
01/17/2007, The Jewish Press
VIENNA The board of the Jewish Community of Vienna voted unanimously January 11 to excommunicate a Jewish man who attended a recent Holocaust denial conference in Iran…
Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Yonah Metzger, asked in December [2006] for a cherem, or excommunication, against all Jews who participated in the conference.
…Friedman, who has been trying to pose as Chief Rabbi of a non-existent anti-Zionist Jewish community, in Haredi garb, was seen taking part in anti-Semitic demonstrations on Shabbat, speaking into a microphone and desecrating Shabbat on various occasions.
Friedman’s presence over the weekend in Boro Park [an Orthodox neighborhood] sparked angry protests from neighborhood residents.
SOURCE: article titled: “FRIEDMAN EXCOMMUNICATED”,
2007 January 9, The Jewish Press, page 3.
“A group of Neturei Karta radicals went to the Palestinian neighborhood of Isawiya in East Jerusalem to express their condolences to the family of a terrorist who was killed while attempting to kill an Israeli soldier.”
“The dead terrorist also was involved in planning shooting attacks on Israelis in the past but that did not stop the Neturei Karta radicals from expressing their sympathies to the terrorist’s family.”
SOURCE: Neturei Karta Radicals Pay Condolences
to Family of Dead Terrorist 2019 July 9 matzav dot com
Neturei karta is harmless.