Trump upbeat on Gaza ceasefire despite lack of breakthrough

US President Donald Trump said that Gaza’s ceasefire talks “go very well”, despite no breakthrough in the last series of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Qatar.

Discussions should resume on Tuesday, although a Palestinian source familiar with talks told the BBC that they had made no progress.

Trump spoke to journalists as he welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening in Washington DC. Subsequently, a senior Israeli political official said that the talks in Doha were still outside what Israel wanted to achieve.

Trump recently intensified pressure on Israel and Hamas to agree on an agreement, saying that it thought it would be done this week.

While they met for dinner, Trump and Netanyahu were asked about Israeli and American proposals suggested earlier this year to permanently move the Palestinians from Gaza.

Trump said he had cooperation for this in the countries of neighboring Israel, while Netanyahu said he was working with the United States to find countries that “give Palestinians a better future”.

“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave,” said Netanyahu.

The proposals to force the Palestinians of Gaza were welcomed by the conviction of the United Nations, Arab leaders, human rights organizations and Western governments.

The Arab countries, led by Egypt, have suggested an alternative plan involving massive reconstruction in Gaza while the Palestinians remain there in temporary housing.

The UN warned that the expulsion or forced transfer of the civilian population of an occupied territory is strictly prohibited by international law and “is equivalent to ethnic cleaning”.

Netanyahu also seemed to exclude any potential Palestinian state of state, saying that Israel will “always” keep security control over the Gaza Strip.

“Now people will say:” It is not a full state, it is not a state. “We don’t care,” he said.

The concept of an independent Palestinian State alongside Israel is supported by the vast majority of the international community and approximately three -quarters of the UN member states officially recognize the state of Palestine.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Minister of Defense told Israeli media that the soldiers had been asked to prepare a plan to move the 2 million Gaza Palestinians in a southern camp after detecting them to ensure that they were not Hamas agents.

The plan was described by an Israeli human rights lawyer as an “operational plan for a crime against humanity”.

Trump previously said that he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu at the end of the war.

But a Palestinian official familiar with the cease-fire talks told BBC on Tuesday that the three cycles of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel since Sunday have produced no progress.

“Negotiations have made no progress, not even a thumb,” said the official.

“The Israeli delegation simply came to listen to and has no real mandate to negotiate.”

The manager expressed his astonishment in the face of recent media reports claiming significant progress, describing them as “delusional” and “misleading”.

Another Palestinian official told the BBC: “Hamas is starting to question Israel’s true intentions, accusing him of promoting a false feeling of optimism in Doha without any real progress in discussions.”

Trump said Hamas “wanted to meet and that they want to have this cease-fire”.

According to the Israeli army radio, the senior Israeli political official told journalists in Washington after the Netanyahu -Trump meeting: “I do not know if an agreement will be signed in the coming week – this requires pressure and patience.”

“We are about 80 to 90% of the path to what we wanted in previous negotiations.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Forces (FRI) said that five of its soldiers had been killed in the north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli media said it was caused by a road bomb in the Beit Hanoun district.

A Hamas spokesman said his fighters had given the Israeli army a “blow” in an operation in the region.

The Ministry of Health managed by Hamas said on Tuesday afternoon that at least 52 Palestinians had been killed by Israel in Gaza in the past 24 hours.

The ceasefire proposal supported by the United States currently under discussion would have locked Hamas freeing 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 hostages dead in five stages during a 60-day truce.

Israel would be required to release an unknown number of Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from certain parts of Gaza, where he now controls around two thirds of the territory.

Netanyahu also told journalists he had appointed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, would have a long -standing goal of the American president.

“He forges peace while we speak, in a country, in one region after another,” Netanyahu told Trump a letter he sent to the Prize Committee.

Netanyahu visits the White House for the third time since Trump returned to power almost six months ago.

But the leaders come together for the first time since the United States joined Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, then negotiated a cease-fire between Israel and Iran.

There is a strong feeling that the recent 12 -day war has created more favorable circumstances to end the Gaza War.

Witkoff said on Monday that an American meeting with Iran would take place next week. Trump also said that he would like to raise sanctions to the Islamic Republic at some point.

Additional reports by Raffi Berg