But as negotiators converge on the Middle East this weekend, optimism that an end to the war is close has spread across the region on the week of its second anniversary.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Egypt to hammer out a deal’s remaining sticking points, a senior White House official told NBC News on Saturday.
Netanyahu said he hoped to announce the return of the hostages during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which lasts from Monday to Oct. 13, and that he had also sent a team to Egypt to “finalize the technical details of the release of our hostages.”
A deal was “not final yet,” he warned.
Trump’s plan demands that Hamas disarm, and does not immediately order the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Hamas did not mention disarmament in its response to the deal and has long stipulated a full Israeli withdrawal as part of any deal.
Netanyahu said Israeli forces would “redeploy in such a way that the IDF will continue to hold all of the territories it controls deep inside the Strip,” as part of the first stage of the plan.
Trump posted a map on Truth Social Saturday which he said showed the initial withdrawal line that Israel has agreed to. The map shows that Israel would maintain control of the majority of the Strip.
Hamas “will be disarmed” and Gaza demilitarized in the second phase of Trump’s plan, Netanyahu said, warning that it would happen either politically or militarily.
The negotiations in Egypt come after Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Saturday that the total death toll in the enclave had passed 67,000 after the addition of more than 700 people whose data had been verified.
Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, told NBC News Saturday that the bodies of 54 people had been brought to hospitals across the Gaza Strip, including 45 in Gaza City. Trump on said Friday that Israel must “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.”
Salmiya said some were killed in ongoing strikes, while others were shot as they tried to return to their homes in conflict areas or as they waited for aid.
Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.
As the remaining hostages approach their third year in captivity, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Saturday night awaiting news of a potential hostage deal.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an estimated 120,000 people were in attendance.
At Hostages Square, demonstrators unfurled a huge black banner reading, in white and red letters, “It’s now or never.”
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