US President Donald Trump said Sunday that there was a “good chance” of reaching a hostage deal with Hamas “during the week,” a day ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I think there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas… during the coming week,” Trump told reporters as he headed back to Washington following the holiday weekend.

“We’ve gotten a lot of the hostages out, but pertaining to the remaining hostages, quite a few of them will be coming out,” Trump added.

He said the United States was “working on a lot of things” with Israel, including “probably a permanent deal with Iran.”

Trump also repeated claims that US strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities during the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict.

Departing for Washington on Sunday evening for his meeting with Trump and other senior US officials, Netanyahu said that “we are working to reach this deal under the terms we have agreed to” and stressed that, ultimately, Hamas would be destroyed in Gaza.

“I sent a team to the negotiations [in Doha] with clear directives,” the prime minister added. “I think the conversation with President Trump can certainly help advance the outcome we are all hoping for.”

Netanyahu told reporters as he boarded the plane to DC that “20 living hostages remain and 30 who are fallen. I am determined, we are determined, to bring back all of them.” But, he added, “we are determined to ensure that Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel… We will not allow a situation that encourages more kidnappings, more murders, more beheadings, more invasions. That means one thing: eliminating Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. Hamas will not be there.”

Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet at the White House on Monday — the Israeli prime minister’s third visit since Trump returned to power in January.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas were underway in Qatar Sunday, after Trump last week said........

© The Times of Israel