Sa’ar confirms progress in negotiations: ‘Israel wants a hostage deal, soon we’ll know if the other side wants the same thing’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that progress has been made in ongoing negotiations to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

“Progress was made; we see some progress in the negotiations,” Sa’ar says at a press conference in Jerusalem alongside his visiting Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

“Israel wants a hostage deal. Israel is working with our American friends in order to achieve a hostage deal, and soon we will know whether the other side wants the same thing,” he adds.

Asked about a timeline for a potential deal, Sa’ar says, “There is progress, I said it looks much better than previously… but I don’t want to say more than that, because I realize there are families that are sensitive to every word and every sentence.”

Sa’ar says that Israel is working with both the outgoing Biden administration and incoming Trump administration, and “I hope that within a short time we will see things happening, but it is still to be proved.”