An update on recent events
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It's 10 p.m. on Sunday, May 11th here in New York City. It's 5 a.m. on Monday, May 12th in Israel as Israelis get ready to begin a new day. A lot is happening and it's happening fast. So instead of taping today, Sunday, and releasing Monday morning as we usually do, we will be taping the Davayel and Amit Segel on Monday morning and releasing the episode later in the day.

In the meantime, in case you haven't caught up yet, here's a quick update on the events that took place this weekend. Following direct talks with the U.S. administration, Hamas announced that tomorrow, Monday, it will release the Israeli-American hostage Idan Alexander unconditionally as a show of goodwill to U.S. President Donald Trump.

In the statement, Hamas said it is prepared to enter intensified negotiations with the U.S. aimed at reaching a hostage deal that ends the war, enabling Gaza to be administered by an independent professional authority. A source close to the Israeli government has said the release of Alexander is a result of military pressure, increased military pressure by the IDF.

Tomorrow, Monday, President Trump will embark on what was intended to be the first trip of his second administration. Now it's the second trip because of the trip to Rome for the Pope's funeral. But this trip will be a tour of the Middle East, leading to a summit with leaders of Gulf states, which is anticipated to result in large-scale investments in the U.S. economy and trade and tech deals. This

This comes, of course, during Israel's planning to intensify the war in Gaza and against the backdrop of negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program.

Israel will not be playing a role in this summit, and it has been reported that during the summit, Trump will be meeting with leaders from elsewhere in the Middle East, to include from Lebanon and Syria and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In recent weeks, there have been reports that the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has become strained over disagreements on how to deal with Iran and the Houthis, and perhaps now on how to deal with Hamas.

At the same time, Ambassador Huckabee has gone on the record saying there's no daylight between the U.S. and Israel. Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham said this week that the only acceptable Iran deal is one that completely stops Tehran from any uranium enrichment. They also urged President Trump to submit any Iran nuclear deal to the Senate for ratification, which would require a two-thirds majority vote.

Is the window for normalization with Saudi Arabia closing? Are we about to see an expansion of the war in Gaza? Or is it about to wind down? Will more hostages be released soon? What is actually going on with the Iran negotiations? Listen to our episode with Amit Segel and Nadav Ayal. See you soon.