<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that new negotiations were in the works aimed at getting more hostages released from Hamas captivity in Gaza.<\/p>\n
“We’re working now on another deal that we hope will succeed, and we’re committed to getting all the hostages out,” Netanyahu told reporters in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n
Trump for his part said: “We are trying very hard to get the hostages out. We’re looking at another ceasefire, we’ll see what happens.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Netanyahu added that “the hostages are in agony, and we want to get them all out.”<\/p>\n
The Israeli leader, seated next to Trump, highlighted an earlier hostage release agreement negotiated in part by Trump’s regional envoy Steve Witkoff that “got 25 out.”<\/p>\n
Netanyahu’s visit follows the collapse of Israel’s six-week truce with Palestinian group Hamas, whose militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that triggered the Israeli invasion of Gaza.<\/p>\n
The fragile ceasefire ended with Israel’s resumption of air strikes on Gaza on March 18.<\/p>\n
The recent truce had allowed the return of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom were dead, in exchange for the release of some 1,800 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.<\/p>\n
The prime minister and his government maintain — against the advice of most hostage families — that increased military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to return the remaining hostages, dead or alive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Of the 251 hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attack, 58 remain in captivity in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.<\/p>\n
On another issue, after staying silent of late on his much-criticized idea of the United States taking over Gaza and displacing its two million people, Trump plugged it again on Monday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I think it’s an incredible piece of important real estate, and I think it’s something that we would be involved in,” Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly spoken of Gaza, which the Palestinians want as part of a future state of their own, as a business opportunity for America, saying Gaza could be transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”<\/p>\n
Countries around the world and in particular Arab nations have rejected this proposal vehemently, including Egypt and Jordan, where Trump has suggested the Palestinians of Gaza be sent to live.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“But you know, having a peace force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing, because right now … all I hear about is killing and Hamas and problems,” Trump said.<\/p>\n
He added: “And if you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that, and you really have a freedom, a freedom zone.”<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
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