Amid Ongoing Talks On Gaza War, Trump Says ‘May Travel To Middle East On Friday’

US President Donald Trump (Image Credit: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he might travel to the Middle East on Friday as negotiations for a deal to end the war in Gaza.

CNN quoted Trump as saying: “They’re doing very well. We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they’re, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also.”

“It’s something I think that will happen, got a good chance of happening. I may go there sometime toward the end of the week,” he said. “Actually, and we’ll see, but there’s a very good chance that negotiations are going along very well.”

He, however, did not say which country he might visit in the Middle East.

Later, the White House said the President will get a routine physical exam at Walter Reed hospital on Friday, then go to the Middle East shortly thereafter.

During the ongoing talks for end of Gaza war continues in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh, a senior Hamas official said that negotiators for the group and Israel have exchanged lists of hostages and prisoners who would be freed if a ceasefire agreement is reached.

The ceasefire discussions are centered around a 20-point peace proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump.

On the ongoing talks between Israel and Hamas, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that there has been “a lot of progress” towards reaching the deal and he is “optimistic”. However, he warned there is “still some work to be done.”

“We’re getting very positive reports, as of an hour ago. I guess it’s nightfall over there already, but we feel we’ve made a lot of progress today, but there’s still work to be done,” he said as he left the Senate Republican lunch, where he had updated the conference on the talks.

“I feel optimistic that we’re going to get to a deal, hopefully, that hostages will be released — all the hostages. There’s good progress being made,” added Rubio. “But it all begins with all the hostages coming home. And I think we have to be optimistic, but there’s still some work to be done.”

The Secretary reiterated that, under the proposed deal, hostages would be released “almost immediately.”

“We’d like to see them released, you know, within 72 hours, the way the outline of the deal calls for,” he said.

Hamas launched a surprise attack called Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being taken. The attacks triggered a devastating military response by Israel, which killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and reduced Gaza to rubble, leading to a widespread humanitarian crisis.