Future White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Walla on Saturday that “President Trump will be America's chief negotiator and will make it his priority to return innocent hostages to their countries.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog raised the urgency of the hostage situation in a congratulatory phone call to Trump after his election victory, according to three sources familiar with the discussion. Herzog reportedly told the president-elect: “You have to save the hostages.”
Trump responded by stating that to his knowledge, most of the hostages were presumed dead. Herzog responded by saying that Israeli intelligence believed about 50 of the 101 hostages were still alive.
“Trump was surprised and admitted he was unaware of this information,” said a source briefed on the interview. Two other people confirmed that Mr. Trump initially expressed skepticism that the hostages would survive.
At a meeting this week, senior Israeli defense officials told Netanyahu they believed Hamas would not back down on its demand for an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an end to hostilities. They stressed that to reach an agreement, Israel would have to soften its current position.
Netanyahu has stood firm, refusing to end the war in exchange for a hostage deal, arguing that it would strengthen Hamas and represent a defeat for Israel.
Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida said Saturday that a female Israeli hostage had been killed in an area of the northern Gaza Strip struck by Israeli forces.
In the same message, he claimed that “danger still threatens the life of another female prisoner who was with her”, implying that another female Israeli hostage had been injured
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