It wasn’t mission accomplished, but it was good enough for now.
“This is a big day,” President Trump said on Friday, hailing the latest development in a peace agreement he has proposed between Israel and Hamas: The militant group had agreed to begin discussing the return of hostages.
The president’s remarks, delivered in a brief video message recorded in the Oval Office, were a relatively measured addendum to an earlier social media statement, in which he said he believed Hamas was “ready for a lasting PEACE” after nearly two years of war. In its response to the proposal, Hamas ignored several requirements the Israelis had made, including the demand that the group relinquish its political power.
“We’ll see how it all turns out,” Mr. Trump said. “Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home to their parents.”
For Mr. Trump, the deal comes first and the details come later, even when it comes to one of the most complicated and grave conflicts in the world. (“Stay tuned!” wrote Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on social media as Mr. Trump taped his remarks.)
In the span of an afternoon, Mr. Trump accepted Hamas’s conditional agreement, a move that applied pressure to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to keep the momentum going in order to secure the timely return of people stolen during the war. Mr. Trump has also demanded that Israel stop bombing Gaza.
Late Friday, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said that Israel was preparing to carry out the first stage of Mr. Trump’s plan for the immediate release of all the hostages, “to bring the war to an end in accordance with the principles set forth by Israel, which are consistent with President Trump’s vision.”
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The post Trump’s Approach on Gaza: Deal First, Details Later appeared first on New York Times.
