Trump says 10 hostages are to be released 'very shortly' as he pushes for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire

While the tensions in West Asia continue to escalate, US President Donald Trump said that 10 more hostages will be released from Gaza “very shortly”. The proclamation from Trump came as he continues to push for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“We got most of the hostages back. We’re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly,” Trump said during a dinner with Republican senators. He also praised his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as “fantastic”. It is pertinent to note that the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposal includes the term to return 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others.

In exchange for this, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Trump’s remarks came shortly after Axios reported on Friday that the director of the Mossad , Israel’s intelligence agency, visited Washington this week in the hope that the United States would support its efforts to ask other countries to take in the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still living in Gaza.

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As per the report, Mossad boss David Barnea told Witkoff that Israel has discussed plans to relocate Palestinians to countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.

Trump boasts about a ceasefire agreement

While addressing the gathering of Republican senators, the American leader boasted about a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas . He said that the deal is forthcoming since posting on his social media platform on 1 July that Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza.

Last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit to the White House, where he presented Trump with a copy of a letter he had sent to the Nobel Committee, nominating the President for a Nobel Peace Prize .

The same week, Qatari officials mediated indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas told Reuters on Friday that the Palestinian group is supporting the idea of reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war. However, they maintained that Hamas could revert to insisting on a full package deal if such an agreement is not reached in the current negotiations.

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With inputs from agencies.