Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Jessica Steinberg for today’s episode.

US President Donald Trump is more optimistic about a hostage deal that would include the immediate release of all living hostages, says Magid, discussing the President’s Sunday tweet. He discusses the current plan offered by Trump and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, passed through unofficial Trump adviser Bishara Bahbah and Israeli activist Gershon Baskin.

Magid also talks about another hostage deal proposed by Israel late last month, which veers from the principles that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted upon for several weeks. It calls for the release of all living hostages within 48 hours of a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas in a second phase, and a third phase of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Magid, currently in Israel, discusses the Saturday night protest for the hostages in Jerusalem, based on the idea of social cohesion as Israelis show up to support the hostages’ families and the strongly held value that no one should ever be left behind.

Check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing liveblog for more updates.

After Trump issues ‘last warning’ to Hamas, terror group says it’s ready to restart talks

Israel submitted hostage deal offer that strays from PM’s public conditions for ending war

‘Traitor’: Mass Jerusalem crowd pans PM as hostage’s mom calls him worst foe of Jewish nation

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Podwaves.

Jessica Steinberg: Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing. It is Monday, September 8, and I’m Jessica Steinberg.

I’m speaking today with US Bureau Chief Jacob Magid, currently in Israel. It’s day 703 of the war. Four people were killed in a terror shooting attack at the Ramot Junction in Jerusalem. The terrorists who carried out the deadly terror attack at the junction in Jerusalem were shot and neutralized at the scene. We will talk about US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday gave Hamas what he called his last warning. To agree to his terms for ending the war, Israel is reportedly seriously considering the proposal. We’ll talk about that, as well as the news that Israel has submitted a hostage deal proposal that veers away from what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted for several weeks regarding the conditions for Israel to end the war in Gaza. Stay with us.

Okay, Jacob, let’s talk with what’s headlining on our pages right now. Trump’s statement, his warning to Hamas, you know, it definitely feels like there is something brewing, but it’s hard to know exactly what and how much to believe in what we’re hearing and seeing. So why don’t we first take the Trump warning and statement and you can tell us what you’ve been hearing about it.

Jacob Magid: Sure. And if it feels like it’s a bit deja vu, it’s because it is. President Trump on Sunday tweeted that this is his last warning to Hamas to agree to his terms. And he says that Israel has already agreed to his terms. So that actually is something he said before. He’s claimed that Israel’s agreed to his terms exactly not so long ago. And he’s called on Hamas to do the same. Actually, in March, you can go all the way back to March when Trump has used the term last warning to Hamas. We don’t know exactly what Trump’s terms actually are, at least that not publicly. And I can talk a little bit about the reporting of what behind the scenes what they might be. But this is a threat that Trump has issued before and also a claim that Israel has accepted what’s been on the table. He’s once again after this post that kind of came not out of nowhere because there’s been a little bit of rumbling several days ago. He also called on Hamas to release the hostages, all of them, and insinuated that he would even be willing to allow them to stay in power if they just released all the hostages. That was basically his ask in that post several days ago. And then now today, he doesn’t get more specific on what, but basically is now threatening them as opposed to urging them in the previous one. But I think after that, he’s it seems to me he’s more optimistic again. And he believes that there will be a release very soon. And again, something that he’s said before, if you recall, in June, July, there were several weeks in a row where he was talking about we’re a week away or two to three weeks away. And then he switched and said, actually, the whole time, I actually I knew that this was never going to work out, that once we got down to the final hostages, Hamas would not be willing to give them up because then Israel would go in and destroy. And therefore, he effectively gave this green light for Israel to move ahead with this Gaza City takeover operation that it’s kind of started to do, but not in full force, even though there’s been........

© The Times of Israel