Donald Trump says hostages will be freed ‘very soon’ as Israel and Hamas prepare for negotiations

US President Donald Trump says Hamas faces “complete obliteration” if the group refuses to cede power and control of Gaza, as the terrorist organisation accepts certain key parts of his 20-point peace proposal.

Mr Trump has also revealed that negotiations between Israel and Hamas are “going very well”.

The proposal included ending the war, Israel’s withdrawal and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian captives.

Now, mediators are set to meet in Egypt on Monday (local time), the day before the war’s second anniversary, for indirect peace talks between Hamas and Israel.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr Trump said he believes the hostages will be released “very soon”.

“They are in negotiation right now, as we speak; they have started the negotiation, it will last a couple of days, we’ll see how it turns out, but I’m hearing it’s going very well.”

A Hamas delegation, led by the group’s exiled Gaza Strip chief Khalil al-Hayya, was also expected to land in Cairo later on Sunday (local time) to join representatives of the United States and Qatar for talks over the implementation of the effort to halt the conflict.

“It’s a great deal for Israel, it’s a great deal for the entire Arab world, Muslim world, and world, so we’re very happy about it,” Mr Trump said.

Earlier, Mr Trump told CNN Hamas faces “complete obliteration!” when asked on Saturday US time what would happen if Hamas insists on staying in power.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the war in the Gaza Strip has “not yet” ended, describing the release of the hostages held by Hamas as the first phase while details on what happens after that still need to be worked out.

He said Hamas had “basically” agreed to Mr Trump’s proposal and the framework for releasing the hostages, while meetings were underway to coordinate the logistics of that.

“They have also agreed, in principle and generalities, to enter into this idea about what’s going to happen afterwards,” he said.

“A lot of details are going to have to be worked out there.”

Mr Rubio said he hopes a deal can be finalised early this week to allow the release of hostages.

“All those talks are occurring, even as I speak to you now, we’re hoping it will be finalised very quickly, early this week,” Mr Rubio told ABC.

“And I’m hoping, you know again, who knows the timeline? But this cannot take weeks or even multiple days. We want to see this happen very fast.”

He said the US would know “very quickly” whether Hamas was serious or not during the current technical talks to coordinate the release of the hostages.

“Priority number one, the one that we think we can achieve something very quickly on hopefully, is the release of all the hostages in exchange for Israel moving back” to the yellow line, where Israel stood within the Gaza Strip in the middle of August, Mr Rubio said.

He described the second phase of the long-term future of the enclave as “even harder”.

“What happens after Israel pulls back to the yellow line, and potentially beyond that, as this thing develops? How do you create this Palestinian technocratic leadership that’s not Hamas?” Rubio said.

“How do you disarm any sort of terrorist groups that are going to be building tunnels and conducting attacks against Israel? How do you get them to demobilise?”

“All that work - that’s going to be hard - but that’s critical because without that, you’re not going to have lasting peace,” he added.

The plan has stirred hopes for peace among Palestinians but there was no let up of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip on Sunday as planes and tanks pounded areas across the enclave, killing at least 16 people, local health authorities said.

Four of those killed were seeking aid in the south of the strip and five were killed in an air strike in Gaza City in the early afternoon, they said.

- With Reuters