WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he has received a “very good response” to his proposal for ending the Gaza war and is optimistic about getting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back it when the two meet on Monday.
He said US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law who was a Middle East envoy during his first term, were having talks with Netanyahu in New York ahead of the meeting at the White House.
“Were getting a very good response because Bibi wants to make the deal too,” Trump said in a telephone interview, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump earlier hinted at a breakthrough in the Middle East crisis. “We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump said. “ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!!”
US envoy to Israel’s rare visit to Egypt
postponed; 21 Palestinians killed as Israeli
tanks thrust deeper into Gaza
When international leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York this week, the US unveiled a 21-point Middle East peace plan to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
That plan calls for the return of all prisoners, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for peaceful coexistence, a White House official said.
A Hamas representative earlier said the group had not seen the US plan.
Trump on Sunday credited the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan, among others, for helping in the process.
He said the deal would not only end the Gaza conflict but would work towards a broader peace in the Middle East. “Everybody’s involved,” he said. “Everybody wants it, and Hamas wants it, and one of the reasons is because everybody’s tired”.
Netanyahu, in an interview on Fox News channel’s “The Sunday Briefing,” said it is possible to have amnesty for Hamas leaders under terms of the agreement. “The details of this have to be worked out,” he said.
Meanwhile, a visit to Egypt by Washington’s top envoy to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has been postponed, a US official said on Sunday.
Huckabee was scheduled to visit Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials.
Egypt, along with the United States and Qatar, has been mediating between Israel and Hamas in efforts to end the war.
Cairo has criticised Israel’s ongoing air and ground assault in Gaza City, where the United Nations estimated a million people resided before the offensive began. Since the war broke out, Egypt has repeatedly warned that the fighting risks driving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across its border into the Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli tanks thrust deeper into Gaza
In Gaza Israeli tanks moved deeper into Gaza City’s residential districts on Sunday, as local health authorities said they have been unable to respond to dozens of desperate calls, expressing concern about the fate of residents in the targeted areas.
Witnesses and medics said Israeli tanks had deepened their incursions in the Sabra, Tel Al-Hawa, Sheikh Radwan and Al-Naser neighborhoods, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.
The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli air force had struck 140 infrastructures what it described as ‘military targets’ across Gaza.
Medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza, bringing Sunday’s death toll to 21. Israeli forces have already killed more than 65,000 Palestinians in past two years.
Meanwhile, Hamas asked the Israeli military to temporarily halt strikes as it tried to locate the two Israeli prisoners it said it had lost contact with. “The lives of the two prisoners are in real danger, and (Israeli) forces must immediately withdraw to the south of Street 8 and halt aerial operations for 24 hours starting from 18:00 today to allow attempts to rescue the prisoners,” wrote the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades in a statement.
In a previous announcement, the armed group said the loss of contact was due to Israeli military operations in two southern Gaza City neighbourhoods over the previous 48 hours.
