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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the end of Israel’s war in Iran has created “new opportunities” to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza, as Donald Trump increases public pressure on Israel and Hamas to strike a deal in the shattered enclave.
The US president on Sunday called for the warring parties to “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA” and “GET THE HOSTAGES BACK”, days after suggesting there could be an agreement in the strip “within the next week”.
Netanyahu later suggested the end of the 12-day military campaign against Iran last week had revived efforts to free the remaining 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
“I want to inform you that, as you probably know, many opportunities have opened up now following this victory — first of all to rescue the hostages,” he told officers at Israel’s domestic spy agency Shin Bet late on Sunday.
But the prime minister also tied those efforts to other political goals, hinting at “broader regional possibilities”.
While he didn’t elaborate, officials see a ceasefire in Gaza as the first step towards reviving a Trump-led effort to strike a normalisation accord between Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as potentially with other Arab states.
Israel’s foreign minister on Monday said the country was also seeking to open diplomatic ties with Lebanon and Syria, both of which have been officially at war with Israel since it was founded in 1948.
“We have an interest in adding countries, such as Syria and Lebanon, our neighbours, to the circle of peace and normalisation — while safeguarding Israel’s essential and security interests,” Gideon Sa’ar said at a press conference in Jerusalem with Austria’s foreign minister.
The comments from Netanyahu and his allies come alongside an outburst of public support from Trump for the Israeli premier in his ongoing trial, which the US president has demanded be cancelled.
Since Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, Trump has repeatedly assailed the judicial process in Israel, where Netanyahu is being prosecuted on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three complex, overlapping criminal cases focused on his relationships with wealthy business people.
The panel of judges in that trial, at which Netanyahu was supposed to give testimony starting on Monday, agreed to delay this week’s hearings after receiving a classified briefing from the heads of the Mossad spy agency and the head of military intelligence.
The prime minister has denied all the charges against him, calling them a politically motivated “witch-hunt”, language that Trump echoed in his own social media posts over the weekend in which he called on Israeli prosecutors to “LET [NETANYAHU] GO. HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!”
“Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
There is no indication yet that the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas — which are usually mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US — have resumed.
The talks have stalled since Israel broke a shortlived ceasefire in the enclave in March. Israel insists that it will not stop fighting until it has destroyed Hamas, which according to official figures killed 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage in its cross-border October 7 2023 raid that sparked the war. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to local authorities.
Hamas insists a deal for the release of the remaining hostages must lead to Israel ending the war in Gaza and withdrawing its military from the territory. The militant group is also seeking the freedom of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel has since March severely restricted the entry of food into Gaza, with aid groups warning that many of the enclave’s 2mn people are on the brink of famine.
After imposing a total blockade for nearly three months, Israel has in recent weeks allowed the start of a controversial food distribution system run by American mercenaries under Israeli military supervision.
Israeli soldiers have repeatedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians approaching aid distribution points, killing at least 400 and wounding thousands, according to local health officials.
Netanyahu has described the allegations as “malicious falsehoods”. The Israeli military has acknowledged that its soldiers have opened fire on several occasions but claimed they did so after people approached them in a way they deemed threatening.
