President Donald Trump, known for making vague promises about things happening “in two weeks,” now says a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could come “within the next week.”
“I think it’s close,” Trump told reporters. “We think within the next week, we’re going to get a ceasefire.”
Trump and his team have been pushing for a pause in the fighting for weeks. But so far, no deal has been reached. Neither Israel nor Hamas has publicly confirmed that one is near.
Last month, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, laid out a 60-day ceasefire plan. According to a copy obtained by CBS News, the deal would have Hamas release 10 living hostages and return the remains of 18 others taken during its 2023 attack on Israel. In return, Israel would free 125 prisoners serving life sentences, 1,111 other Palestinian detainees, and hand over the bodies of 180 dead Palestinians.
Israel supported the proposal. Hamas said it had “some notes and amendments.” Witkoff slammed their response, calling it “totally unacceptable” in a May 31 post on X.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. In response, Israel launched a massive military operation in Gaza, which has killed more than 56,000 people, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.
There have been two ceasefire deals since the war started. The last one, a 60-day pause, ended in mid-March. Since then, the war has raged on.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under growing pressure from hostage families to make a deal. But he has said there’s “no way” the war will end until Hamas is wiped out—though he hasn’t ruled out a temporary truce to bring more hostages home.
Meanwhile, a U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began handing out food earlier this month. But the operation has turned deadly. People have reportedly been shot by Israeli troops near food distribution sites. The head of the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency called it a “death trap.” The group has defended its work.
Trump praised the effort Friday, saying, “we have a pretty good system now.”
Watch the clip below via C-SPAN:
President Trump on Gaza: "We think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire." pic.twitter.com/cWIRGnm963
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 27, 2025
