President Donald Trump has said that he believes it is possible that a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas will be reached within a week.
Qatar has confirmed it's engaging with Israel and Hamas on a potential ceasefire.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
CGTN’s Jonathan Regev has the latest from Tel Aviv.
00:00There's no words from Israel at this time, Paul. Let's remember it's still a Jewish Sabbath that will end in about four hours from now.
00:08Usually, if it's not an emergency, we do not get an official response.
00:14I think we might not get an official response this time as well. Why so?
00:18Simply because Benjamin Netanyahu knows very well that if the direction is one that he's leading towards some kind of a ceasefire that includes concessions from Israel,
00:30then this is something that would put him in some concerns within his own coalition.
00:36So he would try to perhaps plate down for a while.
00:39The fact that there isn't and there might not be an official response, that, of course, does not mean that things are not happening.
00:45We're getting many, many hints that things are actually happening.
00:49To begin with, on Thursday, out of pretty much nowhere, the two hawkish ministers in government,
00:54all of a sudden tweeting against possible concessions to the Palestinians,
01:01saying that they believe that the prime minister has learned the lessons of previous attempts to reach a deal.
01:07Where did that come from? What do they know that we do not know?
01:11No clear answer yet, but it seems as if something may be happening.
01:14And we can also judge it from the comments of the prime minister himself,
01:18who said that following the end of the war with Iran, now may be a good time to try and achieve a ceasefire,
01:26an agreement with Gaza, but also with other regional factors.
01:29Who are these regional factors?
01:31Again, there's no concrete answer to that.
01:34But there have been rumors circulating in the past few days about the possibility, perhaps, of Syria joining the Abraham Accords.
01:43Of course, all the time there's hope for Saudi Arabia to be joining them.
01:49All of that may be happening, but before any of that moves, there needs to be an agreement in Gaza.
01:56And for that to happen, the Qataris, as you mentioned, are pushing on their end.
02:00The Americans are pushing on their end, and I think President Trump learned that he has the ability to pressure Israel.
02:07He has the ability to make things happen here.
02:09Let's remember, it was only on Tuesday morning, the last day of the war,
02:13when Israel actually was on the way for a powerful strike in Iran,
02:18and it was the American president who pretty much ordered the planes back.
02:22So, Trump believes he does have the power to influence Benjamin Netanyahu to go into some concessions,
02:29as difficult as they may be for him politically.
02:33There seems as if something is moving.
02:35All that, I have to say, is not impressing the Israeli public at the time.
02:39Too many times, Israelis in general, and hostage families in particular,
02:44have learned that things are about to happen, and then eventually nothing happened.
02:47So, there's a lot of skepticism.
02:50Hostage families, as you mentioned, met with Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, overnight.
02:55Rubio saying that returning the hostages home, all of them, is a top priority for the administration.
03:02And the families are saying that they believe that this is really something that is extremely important
