WASHINGTON — President Trump expressed satisfaction Monday with the “technical talks” on implementing his 20-point Gaza peace plan — saying Hamas is “agreeing to things” during negotiations in Egypt.
“They’ve gone very well. We’ll see what happens by the end of the week. But they’re going very well,” Trump told The Post in a brief phone conversation.
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff chat on the tarmac. Getty Images
Smoke rises following explosions amid the Israeli military offensive in Gaza City. REUTERS
President Trump expressed satisfaction Monday with the “technical talks” on implementing his 20-point Gaza peace plan. REUTERSTrump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday afternoon that “Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important.”
“Hamas now has been, all I can say, is they’ve been fine. They’ve been fine,” the president added.
“I hope it’s going to continue that way. I think it will. I really think we’re going to have a deal. We have a really good chance of making a deal and it’ll be a lasting deal. We’re going to have peace.”
“This is beyond Gaza,” he went on. “Gaza is a big deal but this is really peace in the Middle East.”
The precise details of discussions in Sharm el Sheikh are unclear — with state-owned Egyptian TV outlet Al-Wahera reporting that the first stage would feature Egyptian and Qatari mediators and Hamas representatives. Mediators will then meet with Israeli officials.
Rom Braslavski, a hostage, lies on his back, holding his stomach.
Adel Rubin (L), who lost both her parents during the 2023 October 7 attacks, reacts as she visits a house that was left heavily-damaged after the event in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. AFP via Getty Images
A boy walks past tents sheltering people displaced by war near buildings at the Qatari-built Hamad City residential complex in northwestern Khan Yunis. AFP via Getty ImagesWitkoff, who has served as Trump’s go-to emissary for the world’s highest-profile conflicts, and Kushner, who brokered Trump’s first-term Abraham Accords, have been in contact with the negotiating factions and at some point will join the talks in person.
The emerging final details are being held extremely closely by US officials to avoid derailing the tentative breakthrough in the two-year conflict, sources told The Post.
Hamas’s statement Friday agreed to release the roughly 20 Israeli hostages it still holds in exchange for a graduated Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and “to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats).”
Hamas propaganda video of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David in dire physical condition. Al-Qassam Brigade Footage
A boy looks through the viewfinder of a rifle as Hamas fighters stand in formation ahead of handing over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children. AP
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff attending a joint press conference at the White House. REUTERSThe finer points, such as steps to demilitarize Gaza and allow for the voluntary exile of Hamas members, remain to be decided.
It’s also unclear who would serve in the interim government and what nations would contribute troops to police the nearly 2-million-person region.
It’s additionally undetermined who, aside from former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, would serve on the Trump-led Board of Peace to oversee the transitional government.
“It is all very close-hold as it works through the myriad partners,” one US official told The Post.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Monday that “we want to move very quickly on this and the president wants to see the hostages released as soon as possible.”
“The president believes peace is possible in Gaza and that’s why he presented this detailed and comprehensive plan,” she said. “The first step of that is securing a cease-fire and releasing the hostages.”
