What happened on day 555? Latest on US-Iran talks, Gaza war, Syria

The gaps in indirect talks between Hamas and Israel over a potential hostage deal in Gaza "are still significant," an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Hamas appeared to have shifted from its initial position in talks by voicing its willingness to release nine Israeli hostages as part of a deal. Previously, the terror group was only prepared to release a single hostage.

Israel attributes the change in Hamas’s stance to the IDF's operations and continued military pressure, which have led to the capture of approximately 30–40% of Gazan territory.

Hamas told Egyptian representatives that it was unwilling and it would be "completely unacceptable" to lay down arms, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. 

"Hamas informed Egypt that the gateway to any agreement is a cessation of hostilities and withdrawal, not disarmament of the resistance," Al Jazeera reported. 

The Hamas representative also told the Qatari outlet that the latest proposal involves the handover of living and dead hostages over the course of 45 days to extend the ceasefire and allow more aid into the Gaza Strip. 

The IDF renewed invasion, which started with a bang on March 18-19, has been reduced to a crawl.

While the IDF killed 5,000 Hamas fighters in a few weeks when the war opened in October-November 2023, all messaging on Monday and in recent days has indicated progress, which was comparatively tiny in relative terms, with some days the military only taking out single-digit numbers of Hamas.

On March 25, the IDF reported that it had killed 150 Hamas fighters since renewing hostilities, though most of those 150 were killed in the first 10 minutes by a massive air barrage on March 18.

Hamas has agreed to release nine hostages held in Gaza captivity, while pressure is being exerted on the terror group to release additional hostages, according to Arab media reports on Monday.

However, Palestinian and Egyptian sources told Reuters that the latest round of ceasefire and hostage deal talks in Cairo ended with no apparent breakthrough.

The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.

Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is stamped out. The terrorist group has ruled out any proposal that it lay down its arms.

But despite that fundamental disagreement, the sources said a Hamas delegation led by the group's Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended.

Einav Zangauker, mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, who is currently held by Hamas, sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his conduct in the ongoing hostage deal negotiations during a Monday video address.

"If Matan is abandoned to die alone in the tunnel, let all of Israel know that the prime minister deliberately decided to impose a death sentence on a citizen who was kidnapped from his home in his pajamas, only out of personal vengeance against his family," Zangauker stated. 

US President Donald Trump's approach to the direct talks between Iran and the United States over Iran’s nuclear program could lead to dangerous consequences, Dr. Benny Sabti, a senior Iran researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told Maariv on Monday.

Sabti harshly criticizes President Trump’s optimistic remarks and argues, “He made a very big mistake by already calling the talks good,” saying this signals weakness and could strengthen Iran’s position.

While Iran seeks sanctions relief, the reality is more complicated. “It’s important to emphasize that the United States isn’t even talking about easing sanctions yet. It’s actually imposing more sanctions, and that’s what really infuriates the Iranians and raises their suspicions about the negotiations,” Sabti explained.

IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) dismantled Hamas terror targets across the Gaza Strip, including terror tunnels and weapons storage facilities, the military announced on Monday.

In southern Gaza, IDF troops dismantled a significant underground tunnel route, stretching 20 meters deep and several hundred meters long, in the 'Shabura' area of Rafah. This tunnel was used as a meeting point for Hamas operatives and connected several other tunnel routes in the region.

Additionally, during a separate operation, IDF troops discovered a Hamas weapons cache hidden within a structure that had once served as a school. The cache contained various weapons, including mortars, hand grenades, explosives, and other military supplies.

Some 1,790 graduates of the elite IDF Talpiot program, including reservists and retired officers, published a letter on Monday calling for the immediate return of the hostages, even if it means ending the ongoing fighting.

The signatories expressed their support for a similar letter recently issued by Air Force reservists.

“The call to save the hostages, both civilians and soldiers, is a basic moral imperative rooted in the values by which we were raised and served,” they wrote. “It is the government's duty to act in this matter. We join the many voices following the letter by Air Force reservists, urging an end to the fighting and the return of the hostages. We condemn any attempts to silence the voices of our fellow citizens, who serve, contribute, and are deeply concerned.”

Hezbollah's network for acquiring materials to produce drones to attack Israel spans across multiple European countries, French daily Le Figaro reported last week.

Starting in October 2023, the Iran-backed, Lebanon-based terror group carried out hundreds of drone attacks against the Jewish State, with reports from mid-October suggesting it had some 2,000 drones in its arsenal. 

According to Le Figaro, three Lebanese individuals arrested in July of 2024 were suspected of buying such materials via Spanish companies they owned. 

Hamas has agreed to the release of additional hostages in two stages, as well as to provide up-to-date information on the remaining hostages, Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya news outlet reported on Sunday night.

Mediators are currently in the final stages of drafting the ceasefire agreement, with the US striving to reach an agreement before the end of this month, the report noted.

The discussion on expelling Hamas's top leadership from Gaza has been postponed to a later date, according to the report.