Donald Trump privately told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop being “so negative” as Israel and Hamas appeared this weekend to be on the brink of reaching a permanent peace agreement two years into the bloody siege of Gaza.
The U.S. president and his Israeli ally spoke on Friday, according to Axios. During the call, Trump reportedly told the prime minister to accept a response from Hamas as “good news” while urging him to continue the peace process.
Hamas political officials based in Qatar, on Friday, announced that the group would accept the framework of the deal provided that “appropriate field conditions” were met, and agreed to release all remaining hostages — living or dead. Reporting suggests that a divide may exist between the group’s political leadership in Qatar and its militant wing in Gaza, the latter of which controls the hostages.
Trump, however, focused on the positives during his call with Netanyahu and urged him to do the same, according to a U.S. official’s account.
“Bibi told Trump this is nothing to celebrate, and that it doesn’t mean anything,” the official with knowledge of the call told Axios, who said the president responded: “I don’t know why you’re always so f***ing negative. This is a win. Take it.”
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On Sunday, CNN’s State of the Union conducted a text-message interview with the president of the United States, who gave his typical answer: “soon,” when asked by Jake Tapper when the country would know if both sides of the conflict were entirely on board with the U.S.’s mandated ceasefire terms.
“Will you know if Hamas is truly committed or just stringing the world along? And is Prime Minister Netanyahu on board with ending the bombing as you called for and whatever else you need him to do to make this peace proposal a reality?” Tapper asked Trump.
“Yes on Bibi,” said the president. “Soon on the rest!”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expanded on the administration’s perception of the progress it was making towards a deal on ABC’s This Week.
“This is the closest we’ve come to getting all of the hostages released, every single one, all 48 including the 28 who are deceased,” Rubio said. “But there’s a lot of pitfalls along the way. There’s some work to be done here.”
“This is not something that can drag out. We cannot be here three weeks from now, still discussing, you know, the logistics of how hostages are going to be released. That has to happen very quickly in order for the rest of this deal to gain momentum,” he added.
Relatives of hostages protest in Israel (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
According to the terms of the U.S.-negotiated deal, Israel is to “immediately” end its assault on the Gaza Strip once both sides are officially signed on to the proposal; representatives are set to meet Monday in Qatar as those talks continue. The deal would also see all hostages, including remains, released within 72 hours, while Hamas’s military wing is to disarm. Aid is also set to be surged into the famine-stricken Gaza Strip after hostilities end.
In Gaza, United Nations officials and civilians told The Independent that while there had been a lessening of fire in the north, and some displaced families were attempting to return home, Israel’s shelling and bombing had continued over the weekend, with wounded families and children pouring into hospitals.
“People are obviously desperate for a ceasefire, but we haven’t seen a lot of change on the ground. There has been heavy shelling, missile and small arms fire all day,” said James Elder, spokesperson for the U.N.’s child agency UNICEF, speaking to The Independent from southern Gaza.
The Palestinian militant group has yet to agree to the disarmament demand. Trump, meanwhile, repeated his demand for Israel to cease attacks in a Friday Truth Social post. The next day, he said Israel had agreed to an “initial withdrawal line”.
Rubio, speaking on Sunday, said he hoped that “90 percent” of the deal’s provisions would be defined and agreed upon by both sides before talks began on Monday in Qatar.
“Our hope is that by the time our team gets to Cairo, 90% of this has been worked out, and we’re just sort of finalizing the logistical piece. We’d like to see it done yesterday,” he said.
In a second interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, the secretary contended that Israel’s image was lessened by its conduct during the war. A poll this week from the IMEU Policy Project and Gen-Z for Change found that seven in ten Democratic voters nationally believe that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
“[W]hether you believe it was justified or not, right or not…you cannot ignore the impact that this has had on Israel’s global standing,” said the secretary.
Bel Trew contributed reporting.
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