US Politics
Netanyahu says hostage deal will be reached in days as he heaps praise upon Trump in Newsmax interview
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes to negotiate a hostage deal within days, while praising President Trump for his “extraordinary cooperation” with Israel, in a new interview with right-wing network Newsmax.
The Israeli leader landed in Washington earlier this week to discuss a fresh U.S.-backed ceasefire with Trump.
Netanyahu spoke about the remaining hostages that Hamas is holding, as well as his recently rediscovered friendship with Trump, during a sit-down with Greta Van Susteren on Thursday.
“It’s extraordinary. We’ve never had such a friend, such a supporter of Israel, a Jewish state, in the White House,” Netanyahu said during the program, The Record With Greta Van Susteren.
The prime minister said the cooperation between the two nations when Israel launched an attack on Iran last month to eradicate Iran’s nuclear weapons happened “in the nick of time.”
The ongoing brutal conflict in the Middle East has devastated thousands after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack across the Israeli border on October 7, 2023, killing at least 1,195 Israelis, 79 foreign nationals, and taking over 250 men, women, and children hostage.
Netanyahu says he is determined to bring more hostages home, almost two years on.
“We have 50 left; 20 definitely alive, and some 30 that are not alive, and I want to take them all out,” he said.
“We now have a deal that supposedly we’ll get half of the living and half of the dead out, and so we’ll have 10 living left and about 12 deceased hostages. But I’ll get them out, too.
“I hope we can complete it in a few days,” he told Van Susteren.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that Israel and Hamas were considering a fresh U.S.–backed ceasefire deal that would pause the war, free Israeli hostages, and send vital aid into Gaza.
The deal would also aim to open up a broader discussion on ending the conflict altogether.
However, negotiations have repeatedly been stalled as both sides struggle to agree on a deal. Hamas is demanding an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. At the same time, Israel wants Hamas to surrender and disarm before it ends the war.
If agreed, the truce would be in place for 60 days.
On Tuesday, an Israeli report by the Dinah Project accused Hamas of using sexual violence as a “tactical weapon of war” on October 7. It analysed survivor and witness testimonies, accounts from first responders, and forensic, visual, and audio evidence.
Meanwhile, at least 10 children were among the 16 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike Thursday when they were waiting for care outside a medical clinic in Gaza, according to local authorities.
The same day, rescuers searched for more than a dozen crew members who went missing after Yemen’s Houthi rebels sank a ship in the Red Sea as the U.S. alleged the group may “have kidnapped” those on board.
The group’s flurry of missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region is motivated by what Houthi leaders say is an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
