The citizen, Salah Abu-Hussein, was held in Lebanon for approximately one year. Following negotiations conducted in recent months with the assistance of the Red Cross, he was transferred to Israel at the Rosh Hanikra crossing from Lebanese authorities to the Coordinator of Prisoners and Missing Persons Gal Hirsch.

After initial questioning and a preliminary medical examination, he was transferred by the IDF to a hospital for comprehensive medical evaluations, after which he will reunite with his family.

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The Palestinian terror organization confirmed Wednesday it was evaluating the latest ceasefire proposal, The New York Times reported, as diplomatic efforts intensified ahead of a scheduled Washington summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump next week.

President Trump revealed Tuesday that Israel had accepted "conditions to finalize" a two-month truce with the terror group that would secure freedom for some captives remaining in Gaza.

The diplomatic push gained traction following America's recent decision to participate alongside Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear installations. Trump, who has expressed growing impatience with what he called "this very brutal war" in the Palestinian enclave, indicated his desire to achieve a truce agreement by next week.

Details of the emerging proposal remained murky Wednesday, with both parties requiring additional discussions to hammer out specifics of any temporary halt to fighting.

An Israeli defense source and a Palestinian familiar with Hamas deliberations revealed to The New York Times that the agreement would involve freeing 10 surviving captives and recovering 18 remains currently in Hamas custody, in return for releasing Palestinian prisoners. The sources, who received briefings on the developing agreement, requested anonymity given the delicate nature of the talks.

The captive releases and body recoveries would occur in phases, divided into five groups throughout the two-month period, according to the sources. This represents a shift from America's May framework, which envisioned all captives being freed within a week of the truce beginning.

The terror group would also forgo public handover events similar to those conducted when freeing captives during the January-March truce, the sources indicated. Those ceremonies – where Israeli captives were forced to make remarks expressing gratitude to their captors – sparked widespread international condemnation.

Three Israeli government sources, speaking anonymously about the delicate negotiations, indicated to The New York Times that current diplomatic efforts sought to provide the terror organization with more robust guarantees that a temporary halt could lead to lasting peace.

Despite indications that Israel had moderated its stance, Netanyahu declared in remarks Wednesday his commitment to "fundamentally eliminate" the terror organization.

"I am telling you – there will be no more Hamas," the prime minister stated. "We are not going back to that."

Although Israeli authorities expressed guarded hope about the negotiations' trajectory, questions remained whether the newest approach could resolve persistent obstacles that have repeatedly stymied efforts to conclude the conflict.

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Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia since 2021, is heading back to the United States following successful negotiations by the Trump administration, Fox News reported Tuesday.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz announced that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff secured Fogel's release in what officials describe as a gesture of diplomatic goodwill from Russia. "President Trump, Steve Witkoff, and the president's advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine," Waltz said.

Fogel, 63, was serving a 14-year prison sentence following his August 2021 arrest at a Russian airport for drug possession. His family maintained that the substances were prescribed medication, Fox News reported.

Family members expressed profound relief at the news, telling the Associated Press they were "beyond grateful, relieved and overwhelmed" about his imminent return. "This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal," they said.

Before his arrest, Fogel spent nine years teaching history at the Anglo-American School in Moscow. After graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1984, Fogel built a 36-year career in education, teaching at schools serving US diplomatic families across Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, and Malaysia.

The release marks another diplomatic achievement for the administration, with Waltz noting that Trump "has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world" since taking office in January. Fogel is expected to reunite with his family on American soil by Tuesday evening.

Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman called the development "a major foreign policy success," particularly noting Witkoff's ability to secure the release while managing complex Middle East negotiations.

Fogel's release comes months after he was notably absent from a major prisoner exchange in August 2024 that freed several other Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

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As negotiations continue over the highly contested judicial reform, the Coalition offered this week to postpone making changes to the judicial selection committee by a year, Israel Hayom has learned.

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Senior Coalition members involved in the talks – led by President Isaac Herzog – said that in exchange, the Opposition were asked to consent to other components of the legislation, such as the one pertaining to the attorney general and reasonableness.

Some of the bills are expected to pass already in the current summer session, and the rest in the next, winter session.

It is unclear whether the proposal will be accepted as the Opposition has asked the Coalition to refrain from making any changes in this regard during the current, 25th Knesset, at all.

According to Knesset rules, the Coalition will announce this week the votes to appoint the Knesset representatives to the judicial selection committee in its old format.

The elections will be held in two weeks, on June 15. The president is said to be working intensively to reach a deal by then.

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A prisoner exchange for an Israeli woman who had crossed the border into Syria brought the subject of prisoner exchanges back to the headlines. How does Israel contact parties that are holding its citizens? What are the rules of conducting such negotiations? 

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"There isn't always a direct contact with the party that is holding the detainee," former head of the Shin Bet security agency Yaakov Peri told Israel Hayom. 

"Israel has systematically been assisted by foreign mediators throughout the years. [For example,] with Hezbollah and Germany. We also cooperated with France and the United States. As for the current case, we worked together with a mediator in Syria who was interested in helping us. Also, Russia has influence in the country, which made the process much easier."

"The government and its top leader deserve our commendation, for they acted the moment they received intel that an Israeli citizen was being held by the Syrian army. 

"One of the criticisms directed at the government during the case of Ron Arad [an Israeli Air Force navigator who was captured in Lebanon in 1986] was that they were late in handling his kidnapping. The state of Israel has learned its lesson."

Former Mossad official Rami Igra, who headed the organization's captive and missing persons division, told Israel Hayom that there is no country that cannot be negotiated with, even if sometimes the talks are conducted under the table. 

He explained that if an Israeli citizen is arrested in a certain country, for example North Korea, by the local police, and not as a result of an order from the regime that might have an ulterior motive, then the release process of such a detainee is quite simple, but requires complete secrecy.

"The affair is completely taken off the agenda," Igra explained. "The Mossad contacts a friendly intelligence organization that carries on the negotiations with North Korea. Then, following several talks, the citizen is most often quickly released [while the entire affair] stays under the media radar."

Negotiating the release of the Israeli woman in Syria required a phone call to the Russian intelligence, Igra said. "Russia is the landlord of Syria at the moment. This is how the remains of the late Zechariah Baumel [an IDF soldier who was captured in the 1982 Lebanon War] were returned to Israel, and most likely, the remains of more IDF casualties will be returned with Russia's help." 

Another former Mossad official, Prof. Uzi Arad, told Israel Hayom that many talks had taken place between Syria in Israel throughout the years with the help of a third party. 

"If we go back 40 years in Israeli-Syrian history, we will see that negotiations between the two countries have been taking place consistently via a third party, for example with regards to the Druze residents in the Golan Heights in terms of family reunification and Druze trade.

"Sometimes the third party was a UN employee stationed in the country, other times the Red Cross, or the Swiss or a third country that provides such a service. The negotiations take place in the field most of the time. The government is aware of the process but might not always be directly involved in it.

"The current deal seems to differ because it required the approval of the entire government. Cynics will say it's because of the upcoming election, but it could very well be that there is a secret aspect to the deal which requires a governmental decision," Arad explained. 

There is one principle that is generally accepted by the international community, and that is the refusal to negotiate with terrorists. This is why for a long time, the international peacemaking Middle East Quartet – the UN, US, Russia, and the European Union – did not negotiate with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

A humanitarian crisis can facilitate negotiations between two hostile nations as well. In that case, the purpose of the talks would be to solve the crisis at hand. 

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The first two rounds of talks were held on October 14 and 28-29. The negotiations are meant to focus on a 330-square-mile disputed sea area according to a map registered with the United Nations in 2011. Lebanon's National News Agency said both sides would reconvene on December 2.

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But Lebanon has now demanded an additional area of 1,430 square kilometers (900 square miles), Lebanese energy expert Laury Haytayan said, characterizing the new phase of talks as a "war of the maps." The additional area extends into part of the Karish gas field, which Israel has assigned to Greek firm Energean for exploration.

The United States and the UN Special "remain hopeful that these negotiations will lead to a long-awaited resolution."

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According to the report, Abbas said he wants the talks to be based on "international legitimacy" and be held under the auspices of the Middle East Quartet, with international involvement. Earlier, the PA reportedly said it was willing to hold direct talks as well.

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The Quartet is a foursome of nations and international entities involved in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It comprises the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia.

A statement by the Kremlin said that Russia reaffirmed its support for a "fair long-term solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of international law." It also stresses the need for building up Palestinian unity as part of this process.

Earlier, Kremlin welcomed a joint press even that saw Fatah – the backbone of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority – and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip, proclaim that they will jointly act against Israel's plans to extend sovereignty to large parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

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The PA has called for an intifada – uprising – over the plan, while Hamas warned that if Israel pushes it through it would be a "declaration of war."

The push for sovereignty under a peace plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump earlier this year has already drawn stark rebukes from the EU and some of the Arab states.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS

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Nasrallah urged Lebanese officials to negotiate from a point of strength with US Assistant Secretary of State David Schenker over the nearly 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea claimed by both countries.

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Schenker met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri after his arrival on Monday. On Tuesday, he met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who complained about new American sanctions that targeted Jammal Trust Bank for, as the US Treasury Department said, "knowingly facilitating banking activities for Hezbollah."

In comments released by Berri's office and circulated on local media, he said that Beirut has drafted laws in the past years to fight money laundering, adding that "the Lebanese economy and banking sector cannot take this amount of pressure."

The US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has been imposing sanctions on the group for years. In July, the Treasury for the first time imposed sanctions on two Hezbollah legislators.

Lebanon hopes to unleash offshore oil and gas production as it grapples with an economic crisis. Washington is mediating between Israel and Lebanon, which have officially been at war since Israel's creation in 1948.

In addition to the disagreement over the maritime border, Israel and Lebanon also disagree over their land border. Earlier this year, the US had asked the Lebanese for a "unified position," signaling a perception that some were trying to separate the two issues.

"The American envoy is a friend of Israel and keen about [protecting] Israel's interests and wants to negotiate with our leaders on oil, gas, and border," Nasrallah said in a speech in Beirut.

Aoun told Schenker, who is on his first visit to Lebanon since taking the post earlier this year, that Lebanon hopes Washington would resume mediation with Israel for the demarcation of "land and maritime border" from where they stopped with Schenker's predecessor, David Satterfield.

Aoun said in June that he informed Satterfield that Lebanon believes demarcating the maritime and land borders reinforces stability in the area and urged Washington to help while respecting his country's frontiers and right to explore for oil and gas.

Schenker did not make any statements to journalists.

Aoun's office quoted him as saying that Washington supports stability in Lebanon, as well as its army and security forces. The US official was also quoted as saying that his country is ready to renew its efforts to contribute to finding solutions for the border problems.

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RIA quoted Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab referring to upcoming talks with Israel to regulate the two countries' border dispute, to be mediated by US diplomat David Satterfield.

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Bou Saab said that Lebanon was "unwilling to give up any part of its border, on land or at sea. However, we are open to talks to establish the border."

Formally at war since 1948, Israel and Lebanon have long disagreed on border demarcations in the eastern Mediterranean, an issue that gained prominence in the past decade when large deposits of natural gas were found there.

The Lebanese minister's remarks come a week and a half after Israel said it expected the US-mediated talks to begin "within weeks" and two weeks after Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel was open to talks to demarcate its borders with Lebanon.

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that the United States is prepared to engage with Iran without preconditions about its nuclear program but needs to see the country behaving like "a normal nation."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran does not pay attention to wordplay and expression of hidden agenda in new forms. What matters is the change of U.S. general approach and actual behavior toward the Iranian nation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

"Pompeo's emphasis on the continuation of maximum pressure on Iran is the same old wrong policy that needs reform."

Pompeo, in an apparent softening of his previous stance, said when asked about Rouhani's remarks: "We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions, we are ready to sit down."

However, he said Washington would continue to work to "reverse the malign activity" of Iran in the Middle East, citing Tehran's support of Hezbollah and the Syrian government.

Pompeo said U.S. President Donald Trump had been saying for a long time that he was willing to talk to Iran.

"We are certainly prepared to have that conversation when the Iranians can prove that they want to behave like a normal nation," Pompeo told a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona.

Trump said last Monday he was hopeful Iran would come to the negotiating table. But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Tehran would not negotiate with Washington, even after Rouhani had previously signaled talks might be possible if sanctions were lifted.

Cassis voiced concern at Iranian people suffering from the impact of sanctions and said that neutral Switzerland wanted to provide humanitarian aid, "especially pharmaceutical products and foodstuffs."

He said Iran needed to make payments for this, and that was possible only if the United States allowed banks to transfer payments. Cassis said he was confident the U.S. would come up with the "best possible solution" to that problem in a short time.

Iran has stayed within the main restrictions of its 2015 nuclear deal, a quarterly report by the U.N. atomic watchdog indicated on Friday, at a time when Tehran is threatening to break the rules in future in response to new U.S. sanctions.

Pompeo declined on Sunday to comment on the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. He said Washington was tracking IAEA findings closely but added: "We also have our own independent understanding of what is taking place there.

"And the world should be mindful that we are watching closely how Iran is complying with the requirements that were set out in the JCPOA, not only the heavy water issue, but the amount of high-enriched uranium which they are accumulating," he said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which the Trump administration has quit.

"We are watching closely as they put centrifuges into work and whether they are actually beginning to spin those centrifuges and load those centrifuges," Pompeo said.

Switzerland has served as an intermediary between Iran and the U.S. since shortly after the Islamic revolution in November 1979. Switzerland provides protective and consular services for some 100 U.S. citizens and 12,000 people with both U.S. and Iranian citizenship.

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