As Qatari and Egyptian mediators claim major progress on a US‑drafted truce proposal, President Trump doubles down on a hardline stance that hostage returns hinge on Hamas’s defeat, intensifying tensions between urgent humanitarian aims and Israel’s strategic war goals.
President Donald Trump on Monday intensified a hardline message on the fate of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, declaring on Truth Social that their return would come only “when Hamas is confronted and destroyed.” According to the original Fox News report, the post reiterated Mr Trump’s long-standing posture of favouring the crushing of Hamas rather than negotiated compromises, and boasted of past foreign-policy achievements including previous hostage releases.
The remark came as mediators from Qatar and Egypt reported movement in ceasefire talks, and as Israel and the United States have publicly signalled frustration with the negotiation process. US and Israeli teams pulled their delegations from talks in Doha last month after Washington’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, accused Hamas of negotiating in bad faith and announced the US would bring its negotiators home, according to reports in Ynet. Fox News quoted a diplomat saying Qatari and Egyptian mediators had nonetheless secured a breakthrough that preserved “98%” of a previously tabled US proposal.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Qatari officials travelled to the region to revive a US-drafted offer for a 60‑day truce during which some hostages would be released and the sides would pursue a lasting deal, the Associated Press reported. An Egyptian official told the AP the mediators’ proposal closely mirrors an earlier plan Israel had accepted and includes arrangements for an Israeli pullback and guarantees to negotiate a longer-term ceasefire. A senior Hamas official, Bassem Naim, later told the AP that Hamas had accepted the mediators’ proposal, without elaborating on the details.
But significant gaps remain. Israeli leaders have publicly insisted their war aims have not changed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement, translated by Fox News, that Hamas is under “enormous pressure” and praised the Israel Defence Forces for their conduct during what he termed the “War of Rebirth.” The Jerusalem Post reported that Mr Netanyahu visited the Gaza Division’s headquarters, met senior IDF commanders, and discussed operational plans for Gaza City, reiterating his determination to achieve the return of all hostages and the dismantling of Hamas.
For families of hostages and for many Israeli opposition figures, plans to expand operations into densely populated Gaza City have been deeply troubling. Reuters reported that Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to take control of Gaza City in early August, a strategic shift that drew international criticism and domestic backlash — with some warning that intensified operations could endanger the remaining captives. Reuters also noted that a number of European governments expressed alarm, prompting measures such as Germany temporarily halting certain weapons exports.
Hamas has been explicit that it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, Fox News and other outlets said. That stance sits uneasily alongside Israeli demands for the group’s disarmament. The tug-of-war — between immediate concessions to secure lives and a broader aim of degrading Hamas’s capabilities — is central to the diplomatic impasse.
Numbers remain contested and fluid. Jewish News Service reported that roughly fifty hostages are thought still to be in Gaza, with Israeli estimates that around twenty may be alive; those figures have been widely cited in regional coverage but are subject to frequent revision as intelligence is updated.
Mr Trump’s post stressed his own role in past releases — “I was the one who negotiated and got hundreds of hostages freed and released into Israel (and America!)” — and included sweeping claims about his foreign‑policy record. Those assertions were presented as his own on Truth Social. Observers noted the post arrived as Mr Trump met visiting foreign leaders in Washington over separate geopolitical matters, underlining how the Gaza conflict has become a transnational political touchstone.
Diplomats involved in the Doha and Cairo rounds characterise the current phase as fragile: mediators argue there is space to salvage a deal that would deliver temporary relief and open the way to further negotiation, while Israel’s leadership and parts of the public demand an outcome that ensures Hamas cannot reconstitute military capabilities. “This step marks the beginning of the road to a comprehensive solution,” a diplomat briefed on the process told Fox News, while Egyptian officials described “extensive efforts” to revive the US proposal.
As the public rhetoric hardens — with leaders on all sides emphasising defeat or disarmament of Hamas as a precondition for meaningful concessions — the practical question remains whether mediators can bridge a gap between an immediate humanitarian objective (the release of hostages) and longer-term security aims. For hostage families, the urgency is unambiguous; for Israel’s government, the calculus is strategic; and for mediators, the challenge is sewing those priorities into a durable arrangement before further military escalation forecloses political options.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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