Trump: Significant Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Hamas Responding Positively

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday evening that work on the Gaza deal is “about 80 percent complete,” stressing that all parties have given “initial approval” to an agreement aimed at ending the war in the enclave.

Trump stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been “positive about the proposed deal, as have the other parties,” adding that he did not ask Netanyahu to “stop criticizing the hostage exchange agreement.” This was a denial of a report by Axios claiming Trump had harshly rebuked Netanyahu during a phone call last Friday after the Israeli leader expressed pessimism over Hamas’ response to the U.S. proposal.

“I think Hamas is acting well at this moment,” Trump told reporters, adding: “This is an astonishingly agreed-upon deal — every country is now working to finalize it.”

Trump also said Washington had “received indications that Iran is interested in the Gaza deal,” noting that families of Israeli captives had contacted him and expressed enthusiasm about the progress in negotiations.

Earlier, the White House announced that “technical talks are currently taking place in Egypt,” with the participation of Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and other concerned parties.

The White House spokesperson confirmed that the administration is “seeking to move into the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan after the completion of the detainee exchange process,” emphasizing that the United States is “working intensively to push the process forward as quickly as possible to finalize the agreement and end the war, paving the way for a transitional phase in the Strip.”

According to Ultra Palestine, the upcoming negotiation round will be complex and intense over the next 48 hours, as Israel seeks to secure gains at minimal cost, while the Palestinian resistance aims to solidify a firm equation by making progress on the prisoner issue — one of the most sensitive and detailed files, particularly those serving long sentences and detainees from Gaza.

The source added that fighters in Gaza had sent a clear message: no surrender of weapons and no acceptance of a partial Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, noting that the resistance believes Israel is attempting to recover captives only to resume the war afterward.

Meanwhile, Hamas announced Sunday evening that its delegation arrived in Egypt headed by Khalil al-Hayya, who leads the negotiations file. For security reasons, the movement did not disclose the names of the other delegation members, amid heightened precautions following recent attacks, including the incident in Qatar.