Trump says Gaza deal talks to go on ‘a couple of days’

A senior Hamas official on October 5 said the Palestinian militant group is eager to reach an agreement to end the war and implement a prisoner swap with Israel, as negotiators converge in Egypt for talks. Photo / Eyad Baba, AFP

President Donald Trump says talks on implementing a truce for Gaza will take days, while his foreign policy chief, Marco Rubio, warned that Israel needs to stop bombing for a hostage release to happen.

“They’re in negotiations right now as we speak. They’ve started the negotiations. It’ll last a couple of days,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“We’ll see how it turns out. But I’m hearing it’s going very well.”

In a text exchange with CNN released on Sunday, Trump said “yes” when asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board with ending the military campaign in Gaza.

Negotiators from Israel and Hamas were set to hold talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with Netanyahu expressing hope that hostages held in Gaza could be released within days.

But Rubio called for a halt to Israeli bombing on Gaza.

“I think the Israelis and everyone acknowledge you can’t release hostages in the middle of strikes, so the strikes will have to stop,” the Secretary of State told CBS News talk show Face the Nation.

“There can’t be a war going on in the middle of it.”

The diplomatic push follows the positive response by Hamas to Trump’s roadmap for an end to the fighting and the release of captives in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Rubio told NBC’s Meet the Press that there were “logistical challenges” to address to pave the way for the hostage release.

He also predicted that the longer-term goals would be “even harder” to attain, in terms of how the war-ravaged territory will be governed and disarming militants.

“You can’t set up a government structure in Gaza that’s not Hamas in three days. I mean, it takes some time,” Rubio told NBC.

Trump told CNN he expected clarity “soon” on whether the Palestinian militant group – which carried out the deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the conflict – was committed to peace.

The US President added that if Hamas were to refuse to cede power, they would face “Complete Obliteration!”

-Agence France-Presse