PA’s Abbas urges Hamas to free the hostages, cede its arms, says terror group won’t rule postwar Gaza

This handout picture released by the Palestinian Authority's press office (PPO) shows President Mahmoud Abbas (R) meeting with Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair in Amman, Jordan, on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Thaer GHANAIM / PPO / AFP)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urges Hamas to release the hostages it is holding and hand over its weapons to the PA, stressing that the terror group “will not rule the Gaza Strip” after the ongoing war ends.

In a meeting in Amman with former British prime minister Tony Blair, Abbas also calls for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid to the Strip, according to the PA’s official news agency WAFA.

Abbas also calls for the PA to be given control of the enclave, a notion long rejected by Israel.

Trump says he hopes to get Gaza ceasefire ‘straightened out over the next week’

US President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 8, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

Asked about the ongoing effort to secure a Gaza ceasefire, US President Donald Trump tells reporters: “Hopefully we’re going to get that straightened out over the next week.”

Over the past several weeks, Trump has repeatedly given timelines that proved incorrect for when a deal would be reached.

FM Sa’ar mocks Iranian counterpart’s ‘sweaty and tense’ X post against Netanyahu

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addresses a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart at the Foreign Ministry in Vilnius on July 1, 2025. (Petras Malukas / AFP)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar derides his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi as panicky, after the latter tweeted an attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest public demands regarding US-Iran talks for a deal curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.

Speaking to Fox News in an interview broadcast yesterday, Netanyahu said he would only back such a deal if it meant the Islamic Republic couldn’t enrich uranium at all, would give up its regional array of terror proxies, and could produce no ballistic missiles with a range of over 300 miles (480 kilometers).

Araghchi responds on X: “Apart from farce that Iran will accept anything a wanted war criminal has to say, the inevitable question arises: what exactly is Netanyahu smoking? and if nothing, what exactly does the Mossad have on the White House?”

Sa’ar retweets the post, saying: “Trying to remember when I last read something so sweaty and tense. Try to stay cool, Minister!”

Trying to remember when I last read something so sweaty and tense.
Try to stay cool, Minister! https://t.co/BS2SH5jA13

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 13, 2025