Times of Israel
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be visiting the United States.
The top item on Netanyahu’s agenda will likely be the 17 percent tax that the Trump administration slapped on Israeli imports.
The move caught Jerusalem off guard, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich earlier in the week ordered all remaining tariffs on American imports to immediately be scrapped in order to prevent such a harsh penalty when Trump announced the new tariffs on Wednesday.
‘We’re going to try and solve the Gaza problem. It’s been a problem for many years — for many, many decades,’ Trump said when asked where efforts stand to restore a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
‘I’ve met with a lot of the hostages. It’s a terrible situation. But if you notice, hostages are being released now, and that’s happened only since I got involved. We have hostages being released — quite a few,’ he added. Hostages haven’t been released for over a month, though’.
Where things stand in hostage talks
A ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down after the completion of the first phase on March 1. Thirty-three hostages were released during that phase, including 25 living captives.
Israel has sought to have the deal reworked so that more hostages can be released in an extension of the phase one temporary ceasefire, allowing the IDF to resume fighting against Hamas. The terror group has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the deal, which was supposed to transition on March 2 to phase two, during which the remaining living hostages — 24 in total — would be released in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and permanent end to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the latter two terms, arguing that they would keep Hamas in power.
The premier directed the IDF to resume intensive military operations in Gaza on March 18 after Hamas rejected several proposals to extend the first phase of the ceasefire.
A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Hamas is prepared to release all the hostages at once in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.
Amid Israel’s longstanding rejection of such a trade, it submitted earlier this week a proposal to extend phase one — something it had long refused to do and an apparent indication that Hamas is buckling under the intensive Israeli military pressure.
The Hamas proposal was nearly identical to one submitted by US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff, which would have seen the release of five hostages and also included guarantees from the mediators that Israel would agree to begin holding talks on the phase two permanent ceasefire, the Palestinian official said.
However, the Israeli counterproposal demanded 11 hostages and dropped guarantees regarding phase two talks, the official added. The proposal was rejected by Hamas and talks remain at an impasse.
‘I want to get as many hostages as we can,’ Trump said when speaking with reporters on Thursday.
‘Gaza is a very, very important thing. It’s been under siege for many years,’ he said, notably using rhetoric typically employed by Israel’s detractors to describe its blockade on the Hamas-ruled Strip.
‘It’s a shame. A lot of people die in Gaza… a lot of bad things happen in Gaza. But we’ll see what we can do about it,’ Trump added.
He needs to be in leg irons when he is here.