Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night that he was hopeful Israel would see the return of all the hostages held in Gaza “in the coming days,” expressing cautious optimism ahead of imminent negotiations on their release under the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the Strip.

Israel is “on the brink of a very big achievement,” Netanyahu declared in a brief Hebrew-language video statement updating Israelis on the progress of the US plan. Trump hours earlier described his plan as the premier’s “chance for victory,” and said Netanyahu had “no choice” but to go along with it.

“It’s still not final. We are working hard on it,” Netanyahu said of the proposal, adding: “I hope that, with God’s help, in the coming days, even during the Sukkot holiday, we will be able to announce the return of all the hostages — the living and the slain, in one go, with the IDF still deployed deep in Gaza.” The week-long Sukkot festival begins on Monday evening.

Netanyahu said that he had instructed Israel’s negotiating team to head to Cairo to nail down the “technical details” of the hostage release, and that both Jerusalem and Washington’s intention “is to limit this negotiation to a few days.”

He added that in the second phase of the deal, “Hamas will be disarmed, and the Gaza Strip will be demilitarized,” warning that “it will happen either diplomatically, according to the Trump plan, or militarily, by us.”

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Israel halts some strikes, agrees to withdrawal line

Netanyahu’s statement came shortly after Trump hailed Israel on Saturday for temporarily halting military strikes in Gaza to facilitate completion of the US plan, and warned Hamas against delaying the deal.

Amid reports of a deadly Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Trump posted on Truth Social, expressing his appreciation that “Israel has temporarily stopped the bombing in order to give the hostage release and peace deal a chance to be completed.”

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu(L) participate in a press conference in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC on September 29, 2025. (Jim WATSON / AFP)

“Hamas must move quickly, or else all bets will be off,” the president warned, saying, “I will not tolerate delay, which many think will happen, or any outcome where Gaza poses a threat again.”

“When Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective, the Hostages and Prisoner Exchange will begin, and we will create the conditions for the next phase of withdrawal, which will bring us close to the end of this 3,000 YEAR CATASTROPHE,” Trump wrote.

Following Netanyahu’s video statement, Trump added in another Truth Social post that Israel had agreed to an initial withdrawal line in Gaza, saying it had been shown to Hamas.

The initial withdrawal line, according to Trump’s map, reflects Israel’s approximate lines of control in the Strip prior to the major offensive in Gaza City that began last month.

At the time, the IDF held some 70 percent of Gaza’s territory. It would mean that the IDF would continue to maintain a presence in southern Gaza’s Rafah, including the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border; most of Khan Younis; large portions of the Strip’s north, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and the eastern outskirts of Gaza City; alongside a maintained buffer zone in other areas.

( @realDonaldTrump – Truth Social Post )
( Donald J. Trump – Oct 04, 2025, 4:02 PM ET )

After negotiations, Israel has agreed to the initial withdrawal line, which we have shown to, and shared with, Hamas. When Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective, the… pic.twitter.com/QEEDtjF8xo

— Fan Donald J. Trump ???????? TRUTH POSTS (@TruthTrumpPosts) October 4, 2025

In his video statement, Netanyahu argued that Hamas’s willingness to release all the hostages stemmed solely from sustained military and diplomatic pressure, pushing back against senior officials who argued that it would be impossible to get all the hostages back without leaving Gaza entirely.

He said 207 hostages have been returned, “but I never gave up on the rest of the hostages. And I never gave up on the rest of the war aims.”

In the first stage of the deal, he noted, all the hostages would be released and the IDF would redeploy to positions that allow it to continue to oversee Gaza. The premier stated in English that “it’s true; it’s for real” that Israel can get the release of all the hostages without withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.

“With God’s help, it will happen very soon.”

Trump: Bibi had ‘no choice’ over plan

While Netanyahu presented the US plan’s progress as the result of close coordination with Trump, the American leader said on Saturday that he had given Netanyahu “no choice” but to back his proposal.

“I said, ‘Bibi, this is your chance for victory.’ He was fine with it,” Trump told the Axios news site ahead of Netanyahu’s video statement, referring to a phone call he held with the premier on Friday. “He’s got to be fine with it. He has no choice. With me, you got to be fine.”

Crowds rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, urging the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s deal to free all hostages from Gaza and end the war, October 4, 2025. (Tal A.M / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

“Bibi took it very far [in Gaza] and Israel lost a lot of support in the world. Now I am gonna get all that support back,” Trump also said, according to the report, which was later shared by the White House’s “Rapid Response 47” account on X as Netanyahu made the case for the plan to the Israeli public.

For his part, Netanyahu said he and Trump jointly engineered “a diplomatic move that turned the situation on its head,” while IDF troops were pressing into Gaza City. “Instead of Israel being isolated, Hamas will be isolated,” the prime minister said.

Trump’s advisers reportedly told the president before the Friday call that Netanyahu had reservations about the proposal, but Netanyahu agreed to move ahead when they spoke.

“We had great receptivity for our plan — every country of the world in favor,” Trump told Axios. “Bibi is in favor. Hamas went a long way — they want to do it. Now we will need to close it.”

US President Donald Trump, alongside Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaks during a multilateral meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, on September 23, 2025. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Trump also praised leading Israeli critic Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “very helpful” in getting Hamas on board. “Erdogan helped a lot. He is a tough guy, but he is a friend of mine and he was great,” Trump said.

Mediators head to Cairo

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced Saturday evening that Cairo would be hosting delegations from Hamas and Israel on Monday to discuss the details of the release of all hostages from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, including many convicted terrorists, under the Trump plan.

Israel’s negotiating team, led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, is expected to head to Cairo on Sunday or Monday, Channel 12 news reported.

The team was to be made up of Dermer, government hostage point-man Gal Hirsch, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk, senior Shin Bet official “Mem” and senior Mossad official “Dalet,” a member of the team told The Times of Israel on Saturday.

The latter two figures are identified publicly only by their first Hebrew initials.

They were to be joined by staff from the Mossad, IDF and Shin Bet.

Netanyahu told Channel 12 on Saturday that two aides to Trump — Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a close adviser on the Middle East, and special envoy to the region Steve Witkoff — were heading to Cairo “to finish” the US deal and wouldn’t reopen any clause relating to the release of hostages.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, right, and Jared Kushner wait for the arrival of President Donald Trump at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey on July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are arriving soon to finish this. They aren’t coming to play games. They aren’t ready to reopen any clause relating to the release [of the hostages]. First bring the hostages, then the rest will come. I believe there is a good chance we will reach this,” the premier said.

According to Channel 12, the first stage of the talks will focus on agreeing on a mechanism for the release of the hostages. The 72-hour countdown to release all the living hostages will begin once that mechanism is finalized, the report said, adding that returning the bodies of the remaining hostages is expected to take longer.

Al Jazeera reported that a Hamas delegation would arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh in Sinai on Monday ahead of the ceasefire negotiations, and a Qatari delegation was also set to participate in the talks.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, citing Arab mediators, that Hamas’s political and military wings have not reached a consensus over the issue of disarmament under Trump’s proposal.

According to the report, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s lead negotiator, and other political officials living outside Gaza are ready to accept the proposal “despite significant reservations.”

While Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Izz al-Din Haddad, is open to surrendering Hamas’s offensive weapons, such as rockets, he wants to retain the terror group’s “defensive” weapons, such as assault rifles, the report said.

Other military commanders are reportedly less open to compromise, feeling they won’t be able to enforce disarmament among the young men they have recruited throughout the war, who they believe may not be willing to surrender their weapons after losing family and property during the conflict.