World awaits Gaza peace deal

Yeah. So, Haley, it's so interesting because certainly someone who has experience in the diplomatic facet of these kinds of negotiations, like the ambassador, would have that kind of insight. But then I wonder, because President Trump is sort of a chaos agent-- and I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that he's unpredictable. And he's suggesting through social media he's actually-- it seems as if he's encouraging Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop military activities in Gaza, to only undertake any military activities if they are defensive in nature, as opposed to an offensive bombing campaign, for example. And I wonder what the response has been from Netanyahu to the president posting on social media, for example, video showing the protests against the prime minister and asking the prime minister to stop the bombing while the diplomats hammer this out. Has there been a letup, at all, in the fighting? That's an excellent point. And as you say, President Trump is a hugely important person for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he is responding to the influence of President Trump. But despite those posts on Truth Social that you're referencing, we were near the border with Gaza yesterday, for example, and we heard and felt a number of very large explosions. And our sources there say while there have been fewer strikes since the proposal was announced, strikes are continuing. At least 24 people were killed in Gaza in the last day, according to health officials there. And an Israeli government spokesperson said that certain kinds of bombings had stopped. But there currently is no ceasefire in Gaza. Haley Ott for us, reporting from Tel Aviv-- actually from Jerusalem. Haley, thank you very much. Appreciate it. For more on today's events in the Middle East, I want to bring in Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen. She's a senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute. So Lucy, you could hear the conversation that Haley and I were having. Tomorrow, as you know, marks two years since that horrific attack by Hamas. Is this somehow the beginning of the end of this conflict, or do you see it, as some do, which is Hamas, for example, has not responded to the proposal put forth by President Trump that requires them to disarm and to not have any role at all, politically or otherwise, in the future of Gaza? They've responded to the hostages being released, and there are bits of the proposal, as you know, that they've agreed to, but not the proposal in full. Yes, that's correct. And I think as some of the segment we heard just before this, Ambassador Pinkas in particular pointed out, there's a lot of ambiguity built already into the 20-point plan. And there certainly has been in the response we've seen from Hamas so far, certainly two years on from this most devastating, unprecedentedly devastating, even by the standards of this conflict, two years on from that. There's the hope, certainly from the people on the ground in Gaza and the families of the hostages. This is the beginning of the end. But there is a lot that could still go wrong, as these ambiguities are worked out or clarified.

So the president has urged the negotiators at the talks to, quote, "move quickly." There's also been some reporting from Axios, and other news organizations, that the president has become exasperated by Prime Minister Netanyahu. So how, in your estimation, do you think these talks will go? Will we see swift movement? Look, I think there is some chance that we will see swift movement over the next few days if there is going to be success on this first part of the agreement, which is getting the hostages released, the ceasefire formally in place, and the beginning of the exchange of prisoners and everything that flows from there. As you mentioned, President Trump is going to be bringing his leverage to bear where he most has it, which is on Prime Minister Netanyahu. You've already seen some of that pressure put out publicly over Truth Social and otherwise. And in parallel, you're going to see Egypt, Qatar, to some degree, Turkey, those who have the leverage on Hamas, probably applying the same kind of pressure there. The political will is certainly there from the third parties, the outside actors. And the question is, will the parties themselves be able to move now to get this over the finish line?

Yeah, we'll be watching, everybody hoping that there is an end to this conflict, specifically those people who are still waiting for those 48 hostages, both dead and alive, to finally come home to their families. Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, thank you very, very much for your insight and analysis. We appreciate it.