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 Israel had accepted a hostage-ceasefire proposal, and Hamas said it had responded positively, albeit with reservations. Two Palestinian sources familiar with the matter told Reuters early Monday that the first session of talks ended inconclusively.

The sources claimed that the Israeli delegation did not have a sufficient mandate to reach an agreement with Hamas.

“After the first session of indirect negotiations in Doha, the Israeli delegation is not sufficiently authorized… to reach an agreement with Hamas, as it has no real powers,” the sources told Reuters.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC on Sunday that the terror group had lost control of around 80% of the Gaza Strip and that there is “barely anything left” of its military structure.

The British news outlet said it received a number of voice messages from a “senior officer” in Hamas, identified only as a lieutenant colonel who was wounded in October 2023.

“Let’s be realistic here — there’s barely anything left of the security structure. Most of the leadership, about 95%, are now dead… The active figures have all been killed,” he said. “So really, what’s stopping Israel from continuing this war?”

The official claimed that the war “has to continue until the end. All the conditions are aligned: Israel has the upper hand, the world is silent, the Arab regimes are silent, criminal gangs are everywhere, society is collapsing.”

He said since the end of the latest ceasefire in March, Hamas’s security control in Gaza “has completely collapsed. Totally gone. There’s no control anywhere,” pointing to extensive looting of Hamas’s complex with no intervention. “So, the security situation is zero. Hamas’s control is zero. There’s no leadership, no command, no communication. Salaries are delayed, and when they do arrive, they’re barely usable. Some die just trying to collect them. It’s total collapse.”

A person familiar with the negotiations shared with the Associated Press on Sunday a copy of the latest ceasefire proposal submitted by mediators to Hamas, and its veracity was confirmed by two other people familiar with the document. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media.

The document outlines plans for a 60-day ceasefire during which Hamas would hand over 10 living and 18 dead hostages, Israeli forces would withdraw to a buffer zone along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, and significant amounts of aid would be brought in.

The document says the aid would be distributed by United Nations agencies and the Palestinian Red Crescent. It does not specify what would happen to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the American organization that has distributed food aid since May. Israel wants it to replace the UN-coordinated system.

As in previous ceasefire agreements, Palestinian terrorists and security prisoners held in Israeli facilities would be released in exchange for the hostages, but the number is not yet agreed upon.

The proposal stops short of guaranteeing a permanent end to the war — a condition demanded by Hamas — but says negotiations for a permanent ceasefire would take place during the 60 days. During that time, “President Trump guarantees Israel’s adherence” to halting military operations, the document says, adding that Trump “will personally announce the ceasefire agreement.”

The personal guarantee by Trump appeared to be an attempt to reassure Hamas that Israel would not resume fighting as it did in March during a previous ceasefire, when talks to extend it appeared to stall.

Since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, mediators have brokered two pauses in fighting during which hostages were freed in exchange for Israel-held Palestinian terrorists and other security prisoners — one in November 2023, and a second from January-March 2025.

Netanyahu said Saturday night that the demands in the latest Hamas response to the proposed outline deal “are not acceptable to Israel,” but nevertheless that he was sending a delegation to Doha.

The war began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Since then, 140 hostages have been freed by Hamas, mostly during the two ceasefires. In addition, Hamas released the bodies of eight hostages, the IDF rescued eight hostages alive and recovered the bodies of 49 others from the Strip.

Hamas is still holding 50 hostages, with 28 of them confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty of the hostages are believed by Israeli authorities to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.

Hamas-linked authorities claim that more than 57,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, an unverified figure that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 444.