Russian held in US to be freed in exchange for Fogel release, Kremlin says
Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(LONDON) — A Russian citizen held in a U.S. prison will be repatriated to Russia following the release of U.S. citizen Marc Fogel, who was returned to the United States on Tuesday, Moscow said.
“In exchange for Fogel, a Russian citizen imprisoned in the United States will be returned to Russia in the coming days,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said on Wednesday.
Peskov did not disclose which Russian citizen held in a U.S. jail would be repatriated, but said the United States had agreed to the release during negotiations for the return of Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since 2021.
President Donald Trump didn’t disclose on Tuesday the negotiations that led to Fogel’s release or say whether there had been any conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I can only say this: We got a man home whose mother and family wanted him desperately,” Trump said.
Mike Waltz, the White House national security adviser, said in a statement on Tuesday that Washington had “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.” His statement did not include details on the exchange.
Trump earlier on Tuesday had been asked if Russia had given the United States anything in return.
“Not much, no,” Trump said. “They were very nice. We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually.” Peskov on Wednesday declined to say whether additional prisoner exchanges were expected in the future, but said that “contacts between the relevant departments have intensified in the last few days.”
Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in October 2024 that Fogel, an American teacher, had been “wrongfully detained,” the State Department confirmed to ABC News.
The U.S. tried but was unable to include Fogel in the large prisoner swap in August 2024 that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, a State Department spokesperson said last year.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Michelle Stoddart, Nathan Luna and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. could “level the site” and rebuild the sovereign territory — after earlier saying Palestinians living there should leave.
“They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony” in other areas or countries, Trump said Tuesday night during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out,” he added.
The White House defended Trump’s proposal as “bold, fresh, new ideas.”
“The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and he puts some very bold, fresh, new ideas out on the table, I don’t think should be criticized in any way. I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions, if they don’t like Mr. Trump’s solutions,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
Trump has not committed to putting American troops on the ground in Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners [in] the region to reconstruct this region,” she said.
“I can confirm that the president is committed to rebuilding Gaza and to temporarily relocating those who are there, because, as I’ve showed you repeatedly, it is a demolition site,” she later said.
International reaction to Trump’s proposal came in swiftly on Wednesday.
United Nations
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the proposal during remarks to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the U.N. on Wednesday.
“We must not make the problem worse,” Guterres said, in part, referring to Trump’s comments Tuesday but not addressing them directly or naming the U.S. president, adding: “It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”
“At its essence, the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is about the right of Palestinians to simply live as human beings in their own land,” Guterres said.
The secretary-general called for reaffirming the two-state solution.
Arab nations
Saudi Arabia issued a statement repeating what it has said in the past, that the kingdom would not establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state — even though Netanyahu said he thought normalization with the Gulf kingdom was “going to happen.”
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
Saudi Arabi reaffirmed its “unequivocal rejection” to attempts to displace Palestinians from their land, adding that its position to the Palestinians is “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.”
Trump last month suggested Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians in order to “clean out” Gaza, something both Jordan’s king and Egypt’s president have fiercely opposed.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday called for swift reconstruction of Gaza without displacing Palestinians and for the Palestinian Authority to govern the territory.
In talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Cairo, the two leaders agreed on “the importance of moving forward with early recovery projects and programs, removing rubble and providing humanitarian aid at an accelerated pace, without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
While the statement did not directly address Trump’s surprise remarks, it marked Egypt’s first official response to the proposal.
Abdelatty stressed “Egypt’s support for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” emphasizing the need for a permanent, just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered a strong rebuke of Trump’s statements on Wednesday.
“We will not allow the rights of our people to be infringed upon, for which we have fought for many decades and made great sacrifices to achieve them,” Abbas said. “These calls represent a serious violation of international law, and peace and stability will not be achieved in the region, without the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967, on the basis of the two-state solution.”
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry also responded to the proposal, saying Wednesday in a statement, in part, that it “affirmed its categorical rejection of infringement on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and attempts to displace them and called for the need to stop settlement activities that threaten regional stability and undermine opportunities for peace and coexistence.”
“The Ministry urged the international community, the United Nations and the Security Council to assume their responsibilities and put an end to illegal practices that contravene international law,” the ministry said.
Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and which is not part of the Palestinian Authority, also condemned Trump and called on the president to retract his “irresponsible statements.”
“We call on the U.S. administration and Trump to retract the irresponsible statements that contradict international laws and the natural rights of our people,” Hamas said.
“We call on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations to convene urgently to follow up on these dangerous statements. We condemn in the strongest terms and reject Trump’s statements aimed at the United States occupying the Gaza Strip and displacing our Palestinian people from it. We affirm that we, our Palestinian people and its living forces will not allow any country in the world to occupy our land or impose guardianship over our Palestinian people,” the group added.
Europe
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that Italy will look at Trump’s plan for Gaza, while adding that Rome remains in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It seems to me that as far as the evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza is concerned, the response of Jordan and Egypt has been negative, so it seems to me that it is a bit difficult (to implement the plan),” Tajani told the Italian Foreign Affairs Committees of the Lower House and Senate.
“I have said what the Italian position is, then we will see when there are concrete proposals. We are in favor of two peoples, two states. I have said that we are even ready to send Italian soldiers for a mission to reunify Gaza with the West Bank. The government has not changed its mind,” Tajani said.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its “opposition to any forced displacement of Gaza’s Palestinian population, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a factor of major destabilization for our close partners, Egypt and Jordan, and the whole region.”
“France will continue actively promoting the implementation of the two-state solution, which alone can guarantee long-term peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians,” the ministry said in a press release. “Gaza’s future must lie not in the prospect of control by a third State but in the framework of a future Palestinian State, under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas must be disarmed and have no part in the territory’s governance. France will continue to express its opposition to settlement activity — which is contrary to international law — and to any hint of the unilateral annexation of the West Bank.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock issued a statement saying, in part, “A displacement of the Palestinian civilian population from Gaza would not only be unacceptable and in breach of international law. It would also lead to new suffering and new hatred. And so the G7, the European Union and the United Nations have repeatedly made clear from the beginning that Gaza’s civilian population must not be displaced and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or resettled. A solution must not be put in place without consulting the Palestinians. A negotiated two-state solution remains the only solution which will enable both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace, security and dignity. This is also the clear stance taken by the Arab states in the region.”
Israel
Netanyahu, however, seemed supportive of the president’s proposal during the Tuesday press conference and, delivering remarks after Trump, praised the president for his “fresh ideas” to accomplish their goals, which he said included ensuring Gaza is not a threat to Israel.
“I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals,” Netanyahu said.
Benny Gantz, a former military chief and the top political rival of Netanyahu who resigned from Israel’s emergency government in June 2024, wrote on X that Trump’s statement “is further proof of the deep alliance between the United States and Israel.”
“President Trump has shown, and not for the first time, that he is a true friend of Israel and will continue to stand by it on issues important to strengthening its security,” Gantz said. “In his remarks, he presented creative, original and interesting thinking, which must be examined alongside the realization of the goals of the war, and giving priority to the return of all the abductees.”
An Israeli official told ABC News that Netanyahu’s visit with Trump in D.C. on Tuesday “exceeded all our expectations and dreams.”
ABC News’ Hugo Leenhardt, Ayat Al-Tawy, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller, Phoebe Natanson, Kelsey Walsh, Michelle Stoddart and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.
(LONDON)– Rebel forces in Syria are building a transitional government after toppling the regime of President Bashar Assad in a lightning-quick advance across the country.
Meanwhile, the ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group. The Israel Defense Forces continues its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides. The IDF and the Yemeni Houthis also continue to exchange attacks.
14 Syrian security force members killed in clashes: Syrian official
Fourteen members of the Syrian security forces, part of Syrian de-facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa’s militia, were killed and 10 were wounded after “being ambushed” by supporters of ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the countryside of Tartus on Syria’s western coast, the Syrian minister of the interior said Thursday.
There were wide-scale clashes Wednesday between al-Sharaa’s forces and supporters of al-Assad in six cities across Syria including Latakia, Tartus, Jableh, Homs and some parts of Damascus. Curfew was imposed on six cities and reinforcements are being sent to the Syrian coastal area.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
5 journalists killed by Israeli strike in Gaza: Medical sources
Five journalists were killed in Gaza on Wednesday evening, medical sources and the Gaza government media office said.
Israeli forces bombed a journalists’ vehicle in front of the Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Gaza medical sources said.
Israeli forces claimed the five killed were Islamic Jihad operatives in a statement about the attack from the Israel Defense Forces.
“Intelligence from multiple sources confirmed that these individuals were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists,” the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Sami Zyara, Diaa Ostaz and Bruno Nota
Israeli forces conduct strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen: IDF
Israeli forces conducted strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The military targets struck were “used by the Houthi terrorist regime to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. This is a further example of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” the IDF said in a release.
Houthi forces have launched drones and missiles towards Israel over the past week.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Missile from Yemen sets off attack alerts in Israel
A missile fired by Houthi forces from Yemen in the early hours of Wednesday set off sirens across central Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The IDF said the missile was intercepted before reaching Israel. “Details are being investigated,” the IDF wrote on X.
Wednesday morning’s incident was the fourth time in a week that Houthi fire set off sirens in Israel.
On Saturday, 16 people were injured when a missile hit a playground in Tel Aviv after Israel’s air defense system failed to intercept it.
Negotiation team returning after ‘significant week’: Israeli PM office
The Israeli negotiation team will return to Israel from Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday after a “significant week of conducting negotiations” regarding a ceasefire and hostage deal, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.
“The team returned for internal consultations in Israel regarding the continuation of negotiations for the return of our hostages,” the statement continued.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
IDF ‘besieging’ 3 Gaza hospitals, health ministry says
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement Tuesday that Israeli forces are “intensifying” their attacks on three hospitals in the devastated and depopulated northern portion of the strip.
Israeli troops, the ministry in the Hamas-run territory said, are “besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital during the past hours and insisting on putting them out of service.”
The ministry said Israeli troops were “forcing the wounded and patients to evacuate the Indonesian Hospital,” while bombing “all departments of Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surroundings around the clock without stopping.”
“Shrapnel is scattered inside the hospital yards, causing terrifying sounds and serious damage,” the ministry said.
“We appeal to all international and UN institutions and concerned parties to urgently intervene to protect the health system in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry wrote.
On Monday, Palestinian officials said 20 people were injured when Israeli forces detonated a “robot bomb” in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The IDF has not commented on the latest developments around Kamal Adwan or the other north Gaza hospitals.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
3 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that three soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza.
Cpt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22, Staff Sgt. Netanel Pessach, 21, and Sgt. First Class (res.) Hillel Diener, 21, were all killed by an explosion during an operation in the Beit Hanoun area, which has been a focus of Israel’s intense recent offensive in the northern part of the strip.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and the border zone is now 391.
Health officials in the Hamas-run territory say more than 45,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Ellie Kaufman
20 injured after bomb detonates near Gaza hospital
Twenty people were injured among the medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza Monday evening after a “robot bomb” was detonated in the hospital’s vicinity, according to medical sources.
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for a comment.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara
Israeli forces kill Hamas operative in Gaza City, IDF says
Israeli forces killed the head of the national security directorate of Hamas’ security mechanism during an attack on Sunday in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Hamas operative, Tharwat Muhammad Ahmed Albec, was “operating in a command and control center” that was embedded in a “compound that previously served as the ‘Musa bin Nusayr’ school” in a neighborhood in Gaza City, the IDF said in a statement on Monday.
Hamas has yet to comment on the IDF’s statement.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
‘Certain progress’ made in hostage negotiations: Netanyahu
“Certain progress” has been made in ongoing hostage and ceasefire negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a speech at the Israeli parliament on Monday.
“I can carefully say there has been a certain progress” made in the ongoing negotiations, Netanyahu said, adding that he “doesn’t know how long it’s going to take.”
“We will continue to operate in any way and without a pause until we bring them all back home from the enemy’s land,” he said.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Hamas reports Israeli attack on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp
Hamas on Monday said the Israel Defense Forces killed or wounded at least 50 people in an air and ground assault on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
An IDF airstrike was followed by an incursion into the camp supported by 17 heavy vehicles, among them tanks and bulldozers, Hamas said.
Israeli forces also attacked Nuseirat camp two weeks ago, killing at least 33 people according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The IDF is yet to comment on Monday’s operation.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Tomek Rolski
Netanyahu says Israel will act against Houthis after missile strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his nation would “act forcefully” against the Houthis in Yemen after a weekend missile attack on Tel Aviv injured 16 people, according to Israeli emergency authorities.
“Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran’s evil axis, so we will act against the Houthis — the result will be the same,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted to X.
Since October 2023, the Houthis have been launching attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, as well as long-range drone and missile attacks towards Israel.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said it intercepted a Houthi missile but that debris destroyed a school building in Tel Aviv.
The Houthis — which have close ties with Iran and are part of the Tehran-led “Axis of Resistance” — are demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, infiltration attack into southern Israel.
The U.S. and U.K. — supported by other allies — have launched a series of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen since January. Israel has also launched significant strikes in Yemen in recent months, most recently on Thursday.
At least 7 dead after IDF strikes humanitarian area in Gaza
At least seven people were killed after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, which is located in the southern Gaza Strip.
The strike hit a collection of tents within what had been designated a humanitarian area, where displaced people were sheltering.
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the strike on Sunday, saying in a statement it was “an intelligence-based strike on a Hamas terrorist.”
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
– ABC News’ William Gretsky
21 killed in Gaza, IDF northern offensive continues
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Saturday that 21 people were killed and 61 injured in three separate Israeli attacks over the last 24 hours in the Hamas-run territory.
A total of 45,227 people have been killed since the start of the war, health officials said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces continued intense operations in northern Gaza, particularly around the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.
The director of the hospital said there is shooting “around the clock” nearby, adding that on Friday the third floor and the hospital entrance were shelled.
The director said the IDF is blocking the entry of all requested medical supplies. Nine people need urgent evacuation for surgery in Gaza City and the hospital is currently treating over 70 people, he said.
(WASHINGTON) — National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Joe Biden is looking to make as much progress as possible on foreign policy before he leaves office next month.
In an interview with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Sullivan said that Biden is hoping to surge aid to Ukraine and move forward with ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas with his time left in office. Both conflicts have dogged the administration, with Ukraine struggling to retake territory it lost to Russia and little progress in Gaza despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We are going to do everything in our power for these 50 days to get Ukraine all the tools we possibly can to strengthen their position on the battlefield so that they’ll be stronger at the negotiating table. And President Biden directed me to oversee a massive surge in the military equipment that we are delivering to Ukraine so that we have spent every dollar that Congress has appropriated to us by the time that President Biden leaves office,” Sullivan said.
When pressed on clinching a deal in Gaza and possibly broader diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel and Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Sullivan said, “The first step is getting the ceasefire and hostage deal. If we can get that into effect, then the possibilities for a broader diplomatic initiative in the region along the lines that you just described really open up, and we will use every day we have in office to try to generate as much progress towards that end as possible.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
