US President Donald Trump said Friday that the US is involved in “very deep negotiations” with Hamas to free the remaining hostages held in Gaza, but added that some of the 20 captives believed to still be alive may have “recently died.”

“We’re in very deep negotiations with Hamas. We said, ‘let ’em all out, right now, let ’em all out, and much better things will happen’” Trump said after being asked by a reporter in the Oval Office about the status of the mediated hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

He gave no details of the talks, but reports said US envoy Steve Witkoff met in Paris with Qatari officials on Thursday to discuss efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

Trump added that if Hamas doesn’t return the captives from Gaza “it’s going to be a tough situation, it’s going to be nasty… Israel’s choice, but that’s my opinion,” apparently referring to Israel’s plans to conquer Gaza City.

Referring to parents of the slain hostages, who Trump described as “young beautiful dead people,” he said they “want them every bit as much — almost more — than as if their son or daughter were alive. But you have many dead people that are coming out as part of the deal.”

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Of the at least 20 hostages believed to be alive, Trump said that “there could be some that recently died, is what I’m hearing. I hope that’s wrong.”

Trump’s comments on the status of the living hostages followed up on similar comments he made last month, when he caused distress among hostage families by suggesting that fewer than 20 hostages remained alive. According to official Israeli tallies, 48 hostages remain in captivity, 26 of whom have been declared dead. Authorities have expressed “grave concern” about the lives of two others.

‼️‼️ President Trump says the US administration is in deep negotiations with Hamas calling them to release all hostages… Advertisement He also revealed that Jared Kushner is involved in the negotiations . pic.twitter.com/xzO9VpWVC4 — Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) September 5, 2025

Gal Hirsch, the government’s point man on the hostages, said at the time that Israel was not aware of any change to the number of living hostages, despite Trump’s claims. Israel has not yet commented on Trump’s latest statement.

Trump also reiterated the point he made in a Truth Social post Thursday, in which he called on Hamas to release the remaining living hostages immediately, indicating that the US could accept the terror group’s survival if it does so.

“I was the one who, myself and my people, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner was great on this — but they got a lot of people out,” Trump continued, suggesting his son-in-law, who was a senior White House adviser during his first term, was involved in the negotiations.

“I always said when you get down to the final 10 or 20 you’re not going to get them out unless you’re going to do a lot. And doing a lot means capitulation, that’s no good either. It’s a very tough situation,” he added.

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He also said that “people forget October 7,” referencing the 2023 Hamas-led attacks that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage to Gaza, adding that “you have to put that into the equation very strongly.”

Trump also commented on the “big demonstrations” in Israel backing a hostage deal and calling for an end to the war in Gaza, saying they “put Israel in a tough position” by making it harder to “prosecute a war.”

This argument somewhat echoed ones made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the hostage family protesters, claiming that they play into the hands of Hamas by placing public pressure on the government rather than on Hamas. The families have countered that this is partially because they’ve lost faith in the government and don’t believe it is acting to save their loved ones, but rather to remain in power by extending the war.

‼️. Also Trump repeated his previous statements to Hamas : If they release the hostages good things will happen & otherwise it is going to be nasty . pic.twitter.com/80L0bzVYeJ — Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) September 5, 2025

Trump also on Friday signed an executive order that would let the US designate nations as state sponsors of wrongful detention, using the threat of associated sanctions to deter Americans from being detained abroad or taken hostage.

The designation, similar to the state sponsors of terrorism designation that the US already imposes on some nations, will allow the State Department to target countries falling under the label with penalties such as economic restrictions, restrictions on visas for those involved and travel restrictions for Americans to those countries.

While the order did not specifically mention Israel or the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, several US citizens were taken captive by terror groups on October 7, and the Trump administration has made major efforts in returning American hostages, specifically the one-off agreement with Hamas reached in May to release the final living dual US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander unconditionally.

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It is unclear if or how this order would apply to Hamas, which is already designated as a terror organization by the US and is not a state actor.

Responding to Trump’s comments, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum thanked him and Witkoff “for their unwavering determination, courage and compassion” in advancing the hostage-ceasefire talks.

“We offer special thanks to President Trump, who is making every effort to fulfill his promise to bring them home. We pray this will happen soon,” said the Forum in a statement, adding that Israelis have rallied en masse in recent weeks “with a clear call: end the war and bring all hostages home.”

The statement also welcomed Trump’s new executive order. “President Trump demonstrates that true leadership is measured by bold decisions. We are grateful for his recent executive order that sends a clear message to the world that hostage-taking is fundamentally wrong and will not be tolerated by the US administration,” said the statement.

“We are confident that President Trump and Ambassador Witkoff will faithfully represent Israel’s interests in these negotiations and bring all parties to a comprehensive agreement,” the Forum said, calling on the Israeli government to support Trump’s efforts.

Report: Halevi pushed for comprehensive deal last year

Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi tried to convince Netanyahu to accept a deal that would have seen all the hostages freed ahead of the Rafah offensive last year, and the premier firmly rejected the proposal, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Friday.

Unnamed sources told the outlet that in the months before the IDF operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Halevi pushed for a ceasefire deal that would see all the hostages released in one phase.

According to the plan formulated by the military, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza would make it easier for the IDF to defeat the Hamas terror group.

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The report said that when Halevi raised the proposal at a meeting of the high-level security cabinet, Netanyahu quickly rejected it as “defeat.”

The report said that the dismissal of the plan was so firm that it wasn’t even suggested to the team negotiating a hostage-ceasefire deal, with Netanyahu’s government instead pushing for a partial deal that would have had hostages released in phases.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the report, Kan added.

Last month, Hamas said it agreed to a partial deal, nearly identical to one agreed to by Israel weeks prior, that would see 10 living hostages released and the remains of 18 dead hostages returned, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners and some 1,000 Gazan detainees, and a 60-day ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held for the return of the remaining 20 hostages, of whom 10-12 are believed to be alive, and a permanent end to the war.

Despite this agreement, Israel has said it is no longer pursuing phased deals, and is now demanding a comprehensive agreement to return all the captives in one go and have Hamas surrender.

The Prime Minister’s Office has said said the war can end immediately if five conditions are met — the release of all hostages; the disarmament of Hamas; the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control in Gaza; and “the establishment of an alternative civilian administration that does not indoctrinate for terror, does not dispatch terror, and does not threaten Israel.”

On Wednesday, Palestinian-American political activist Bishara Bahbah, who has been mediating between the Trump administration and the Hamas terror group, said that the US presented mediators with a final ceasefire proposal for a comprehensive deal to end the war and free all the hostages held in Gaza.

Bahbah, who is not an official member of the US negotiating team but has been serving as a liaison between the Trump administration and Hamas, said that he reached out to the terror group with the latest terms, and that they responded positively to the proposal.

Hamas later released a statement saying it was willing “to enter into a comprehensive deal” to free the remaining hostages “in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation,” and said that it was ready to form “an independent national administration of technocrats” to run Gaza.

However, Israel dismissed Hamas’s announcement on Wednesday night as “spin,” as the Israel Defense Forces continued to advance its plan to conquer Gaza City.

IDF said to think Hamas may move captives from Gaza City

As Israel presses ahead with its plan to conquer Gaza City, the IDF assesses that Hamas may try to move the hostages held in Gaza City ahead of the intensified military operation there, Channel 13 reported on Friday night.

The report says that the military believes that the video of hostages Alon Ohel and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, released Friday by the terror group but apparently dated August 28, 2025, was filmed in an area of the Shati refugee camp, where the IDF is not present.

According to Channel 13, the military admits that they do not have a complete intelligence picture of the locations of all the hostages held in Gaza.

Defense officials have warned that the takeover operation will put the hostages at greater danger, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Friday urged the government to secure a deal for the captives’ release rather than go forward with the new campaign.

“It’s hard to predict how Hamas will behave with the hostages, if they’ll guard them or if they’ll use them as a shield, or, God forbid, kill some of them as manipulation,” a military source told the Ynet news outlet on Friday.

“It’s clear that the operation endangers them,” the source said.

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has repeatedly warned in private forums that the operation will endanger the hostages, and has reportedly urged the government to accept the phased deal that Hamas said it had agreed to, shortly after Israel declared it would only accept a deal for all the hostages to be released at once.

Other top officials in the military and security establishment are reported to oppose the Gaza City takeover, which the IDF estimates could take months to complete.

Zamir is also said to have warned that the plan will precede another major operation to conquer the refugee camps in central Gaza, and then drag Israel into a full-fledged occupation of the Strip.

Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer has “unexpectedly” closed its facility in Bristol, the United Kingdom, the Guardian reports.

The site was leased by the company since 2019 and was only set to expire in 2029, but was deserted — aside from the presence of a security guard — when the British newspaper visited this week.

Elbit did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.

The company was targeted by dozens of protests by the anti-Israel Palestine Action group, which was proscribed as a terror group by the UK government in July.

US President Donald Trump said that some of the 20 hostages who are presumed to be alive in Gaza may have “recently died,” as Israel calls on Palestinians living in Gaza City to evacuate ahead of an expanded assault on the enclave’s largest city.

“It’s 20 people but I think of the 20 there could be some that have recently died is what I’m hearing. I hope that’s wrong,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Friday.

“We know that at least 30 people are dead, and we are negotiating to get them out,” he added.

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The Israeli government says 47 hostages abducted by Hamas and its allies on October 7, 2023 are still in Gaza, including 27 who are believed to be dead.

Trump did not reveal the source of the information regarding the possible recent deaths.

Trump said the administration was “in very deep negotiations with Hamas” to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages and warned of a “tough situation” ahead.

“When you get down to the final 10 or 20, you’re not gonna get them out unless you’re gonna do a lot and doing a lot means capitulation,” he said.

The Israeli military has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on Trump’s remarks.

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages release 700 yellow ballons to mark the same number of days of captivity on August 5, 2025, in what is known as “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv. – Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Trump made similar comments in August saying “probably” fewer than 20 of the remaining hostages were still alive, prompting demands from the families of remaining hostages for answers from Israel’s government. Last April, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara was overheard on a microphone saying that fewer hostages were alive than the government’s official numbers suggested, sparking outrage among hostage families who demanded the government reveal information about the number of those still alive.

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In a statement Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum did not directly address Trump’s latest remarks on the hostages but thanked him for “making every effort to fulfill his promise to bring them home.”

Trump’s comments came on the same day Hamas released a rare video of two hostages in which they were shown above the ground and being driven around Gaza City. One of them said that he and eight other hostages in Gaza City would die if Israel proceeded with its plan to take over the city.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum have criticized Israel’s escalating assault on the city, saying it would increase the risk to hostages since the Israeli military lacks precise information about their location.

Calls to evacuate

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has expanded its military operations in recent weeks to take over and occupy Gaza City, which it claims would defeat Hamas. The military says it now controls 40% of the enclave’s largest city.

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The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to move from Gaza City to the south, in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis.

“We are declaring the Mawasi area a humanitarian zone, where work will be carried out to provide better humanitarian service,” the Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X on Saturday morning.

“Seize the opportunity to move to the humanitarian zone early and join the thousands who have already moved there,” he added.

Photos and videos on social media show leaflets dropped on Gaza City and central Gaza carrying the same message.

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza towards the south via Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City, Gaza on September 1, 2025. – Ibrahim Gazlih/AFP/Getty Images

A map in Adraee’s statement, purporting to show humanitarian infrastructure set up in the south of the strip, shows no medical or food distribution sites north of the Netzarim Corridor which bisects the territory, leaving northern Gaza including all of Gaza City without humanitarian support.

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In response, Hamas’ local front issued multiple statements on Telegram urging Palestinians in Gaza City not to flee southward, describing it as “the path to death.”

“Every time people believed the ‘safe zones’ lie, it ended with bloody massacres,” it said on Friday.

As of Wednesday, only 70,000 Palestinians had evacuated Gaza City out of approximately one million people, a senior Israeli official said, making up less than 10% of the total population.

Gaza City residents told CNN they would rather die in their homes than to be displaced again.

“I am staying in my home and will not be displaced again, until my last breath, even if it means death, because we are exhausted from displacement,” Abu Yasser Al-Khour, a 51-year-old father of six, told CNN.

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The International Red Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has pushed back against the mass evacuation of Gaza, calling it “unfeasible and incomprehensible.”

“Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said.

Where do ceasefire negotiations stand?

Last month, Hamas accepted Qatari and Egyptian mediators’ most recent offer for a 60-day temporary ceasefire, during which 10 of the living hostages would be returned in exchange for a mass release of Palestinian prisoners. The offer is based on a similar proposal presented by US special envoy Steve Witkoff in July, originally crafted in coordination with Israel.

Israel is yet to provide a response to the offer, demanding, among other things, that Hamas disarm completely. Hamas has not committed to disarm, but says that Netanyahu wants to have “endless war” by not responding to the deal.

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In his remarks Friday, Trump warned that failure to secure a hostage deal could lead to a “tough situation.”

“It’s going to be nasty – that’s my opinion, Israel’s choice, but that’s my opinion,” Trump said. “They gotta let them out.”

Pressed on what demands Hamas still has, Trump told reporters the organization is “asking for some things that are fine,” but added, “You have to remember October 7.”

“You know, people forget October 7 – it’s not an easy thing to forget, right?” he said. “But people forget, or they maybe purposely forget October 7. So, you know, you have to put that into the equation very strongly.”

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And he said he’d spoken to families of the hostages still being held in Gaza.

“They just want them back very badly, and everything that goes with it – so it’s very sad,” he said.

CNN’s Tal Shalev and Donald Judd contributed to this report.

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