Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday, discussing the continuation of ceasefire negotiations in Gaza with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“One of the sources said Trump’s call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to accept the deal, but stressed that he did not know if that was what the former president had told Netanyahu,” the Axios news website reported, citing two US sources briefed on the talks.
Netanyahu’s office has not denied the call and the Trump campaign declined to comment to Axios and has not responded to other media requests to corroborate the report.
The call came as a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks is set to begin Thursday in Qatar, with Hamas having told mediators it is willing to meet after the talks if there is a serious response from Israel to the ceasefire proposal.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urged all parties not to do anything that could undermine the important negotiations.
At the same time, 5 people were killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank province of Tubas during an Israeli military offensive, including four Palestinians who were killed in a drone strike in the town of Tammun.
Israeli military aircraft struck Hamad Town as artillery destroyed residential buildings in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, after dozens were killed in attacks across the Palestinian territory over the previous 24 hours on Wednesday (Aug. 15).
At least 39,965 people were killed and 92,294 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led offensive on October 7 and more than 200 were taken prisoner. (I-2)
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