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Israeli Cabinet Convenes to Discuss Looming Hostage Release Deal
A person stands in front of a montage of images of hostages seized by Hamas during a demonstration in Tel Aviv demanding their release. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, said on Tuesday that a truce with Israel was close while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced hope for good news regarding the more than 240 hostages seized during the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, the most optimistic signs so far of a deal to pause the devastating war in Gaza and free captives.
As negotiations appeared to be nearing agreement, however, the fighting on the ground raged on, with Israel saying its forces had encircled the Jabalia refugee camp, a major urban flashpoint and Hamas terrorist stronghold.
The Palestinian news agency said 33 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on part of Jabalia, a congested urban extension of Gaza City where Hamas terrorists have been battling advancing Israeli armored forces.
In southern Gaza, Hamas-affiliated media said 10 people were killed and 22 injured by an Israeli air strike on an apartment in the city of Khan Younis.
If a deal on hostages transpires, it would be the first pause in hostilities and the first mass release of people held by both sides in a six-week-old war that has raised fears of wider conflict in the Middle East.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide that group officials were “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group had delivered its latest response to Qatari mediators.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to remarks released by his office: “We are making progress. I don’t think it’s worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon.”
US President Joe Biden told reporters that an accord to release some of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas was very near. “My team is in the region shuttling between capitals. We’re now very close, very close, to bringing some of these hostages home very soon,” he said.
Shortly afterwards, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said a hostage deal was close but not final.
Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet amid growing signs of a deal to free a number of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas militants to Gaza after their deadly cross-border raid into Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the war.
A US official briefed on the discussions facilitated by Qatar said Hamas would free about 50 hostages, mostly women and children and including some foreigners, while Israel frees 150 Palestinian prisoners, with fighting paused for four to five days.
Israeli media outlets said later the government had convened to discuss approval of a deal, including a clause that would allow the Red Cross access to those hostages who remain in Gaza, including supplying them with their medical needs.
A Hamas official told the Qatari-controlled broadcaster Al Jazeera that negotiations were centered on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and details of the exchange of captives. Both sides would free women and children, and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official, Issat el Reshiq.
Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the army was focused on fighting and the deal with Hamas, if clinched, would not affect its gains in Gaza, where Israel says it now controls much of the north.
“The military will know how to maintain its military achievements in Gaza while preparing for the next stages of the war,” Hagari told a televised briefing on Tuesday evening.
He said Israeli forces had continued operations through the day in Gaza and completed an encirclement of Jabalia, “which is a significant combat area”, adding that troops had also “deepened combat” in the nearby Zeitoun district of Gaza City.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into Israeli communities near Gaza killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, the deadliest day in Israel’s 75-year-old history.
The post Israeli Cabinet Convenes to Discuss Looming Hostage Release Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Sees Peace Between Iran and Israel Soon, Eyes Putin Role
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
Despite evidence that the conflict between Israel and Iran is escalating, US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday that peace would come soon and cited the possibility that Russia’s Vladimir Putin could help.
In a social media post, Trump said there were many unspecified meetings about the issue happening and encouraged the two countries to make a deal. And in an interview with ABC News, he said he was open to Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine and who has resisted Trump’s attempts to broker a ceasefire with Kyiv, serving as a mediator.
Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, killing scores.
“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.”
Trump did not offer any details about the meetings or evidence of progress toward peace. His assertion contradicted comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Saturday that Israel’s campaign against Iran would intensify.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how Trump and the White House were working to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East.
Trump told ABC News that Iran wanted to make a deal and indicated something like the Israel strikes would accelerate that. “Something like this had to happen because I think even from both sides, but something like this had to happen. They want to talk, and they will be talking,” Trump said, according to ABC reporter Rachel Scott. “May have forced a deal to go quicker, actually.”
The United States has engaged in talks with Iran about its nuclear program and Trump has told reporters previously that the talks were going well. But another round of discussions scheduled for Sunday in Oman was canceled after the Israeli and Iranian strikes.
Trump said he and Putin had discussed the situation in the Middle East on Saturday in a call that focused more on that conflict than the Russian war in Ukraine.
“He is ready. He called me about it,” Trump said about Putin serving as a mediator, according to Scott. “We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved.”
Trump, who portrays himself as a peacemaker and has drawn criticism from his political base for not being able to prevent the Israel-Iran conflict, cited other disputes that he took responsibility for solving, including between India and Pakistan, and lamented not receiving more praise for doing so.
“I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote on Truth Social.
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Trump Vetoed Israeli Plan to Kill Iran’s Supreme leader, US officials say
US President Donald Trump attends the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, April 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday.
“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said top US officials have been in constant communications with Israeli officials in the days since Israel launched a massive attack on Iran in a bid to halt its nuclear program.
They said the Israelis reported that they had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of the plan.
The officials would not say whether Trump himself delivered the message. But Trump has been in frequent communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When asked about Reuters report, Netanyahu, in an interview on Sunday with Fox News Channel’s “Special Report With Bret Baier,” said: “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that.”
“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu said.
Trump has been holding out hope for a resumption of US-Iranian negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Talks that had been scheduled for Sunday in Oman were canceled as a result of the strikes.
Trump told Reuters on Friday that “we knew everything” about the Israeli strikes.
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10 Killed, Including Two Children, in Overnight Iranian Missile Strikes
Smoke billows following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz ISRAEL
i24 News – Israel continues to recover from one of the deadliest escalations in its ongoing conflict with Iran after an unprecedented overnight missile barrage left at least 10 people dead, including two children, and hundreds wounded.
Rescue operations remain underway, with emergency services still searching for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
The heaviest damage occurred in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, where a residential building suffered a direct hit from an Iranian missile carrying heavy explosives.
Six people, including two children, were killed instantly. In the immediate aftermath, at least seven people were reported missing. However, emergency services have since located four of the missing individuals alive and receiving treatment in hospitals, reducing the number of missing persons to three.
Rescue teams from the Home Front Command continue complex operations at the Bat Yam site, where portions of the building remain dangerously unstable. Large sections of the structure are partially suspended, threatening the safety of both those trapped and the rescuers. According to authorities, the projectile that struck Bat Yam was not a new model but part of a salvo of known long-range heavy munitions, each containing hundreds of kilograms of explosives.
The building that was hit also housed a command center and shelter on the ground floor, though most of those located on the upper floors managed to escape unharmed. Victims were primarily found in unprotected areas of the structure.
In a separate strike in northern Israel, an Iranian missile hit a home in Tamra, killing four members of the same family and injuring 20 others. The attacks mark one of the most devastating nights in Israel since the beginning of the conflict.
Meanwhile, further south, Home Front Command rescue teams managed to pull a Holocaust survivor from the rubble of a damaged building in Rehovot. His son, present at the scene, embraced the rescue teams and thanked them for saving his father’s life. Nearby, the Weizmann Institute also sustained damage, with fires breaking out in some laboratories following another missile strike.
The Iranian barrage, launched in response to Israeli airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, included not only missiles but also reports of drone activity and launches from additional regional actors, including Yemen. Israel continues to face simultaneous threats across multiple fronts.
As the situation remains volatile, Israeli defense forces remain on high alert for further escalation while search and rescue teams continue their dangerous work in hopes of locating the remaining missing individuals.
The post 10 Killed, Including Two Children, in Overnight Iranian Missile Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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