Below is a full transcript of today’s Daily Briefing:

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, 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 quite massive strikes over the past few days.

So that’s where Trump is now. He’s a lot more optimistic. What we’re understanding, I spoke with a US official and an Arab diplomat who said that basically over the last week, US President Trump and Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, were golfing together and came together with an understanding that they wanted to put another framework together or just another push for a ceasefire, because basically it’s been the Arab mediators, Qatar and Egypt, doing the heavy lifting for the past few weeks. They had gotten Hamas to agree to the previous proposal that Israel had accepted in July. And on August 18, they finally, the Arab mediators, got Hamas to get on board. But since then, as you recall, that phased framework, Israel is no longer interested in. And as a result, the US and Israeli focus has been on getting a more immediate release of the hostages instead of in batches.

And that’s basically the framework that was put together and submitted on Sunday to both Israel and Hamas. The US used a couple of intermediaries again to try to send messages to Hamas, telling them, A, that they’re willing to ensure that Israel doesn’t resume the war. So another thing that we’ve heard time and again, the concern and a need from Hamas for guarantees. And that is what they tried to assure Hamas, one, through mediators Bishara Bahbah, who they’ve used, that Palestinian-American activist who they used in recent months to try to send messages indirectly to Hamas. And now we have a new mediary named Gershon Baskin, who could be a familiar name, who’s not so new to this issue.

Jessica Steinberg: Yeah.

Jacob Magid: He was involved in the efforts to try to secure the release of Gilad Shalit in 2011 and has been maintaining contact with a Hamas official named Ghazi Hamad [Senior Member], who is based abroad, not in Gaza. And they’ve been in touch for a long time. And actually, Baskin announced publicly that he had cut his ties with Ghazi Hamad after he had the latter had talked about carrying out another October 7 attack, doing it again and again and not showing any remorse. And Gershon Baskin very publicly severed........

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