US President Donald Trump has said he is "making a decision" on whether Israel should release Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned Palestinian leader widely viewed as a potential future president, just days after Israel publicly ruled out freeing him.
In a phone interview conducted on 15 October and published this week by TIME, Trump was asked whether Israel should release Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for alleged attacks during the Second Intifada.
"I am literally being confronted with that question about 15 minutes before you called. That was the question. That was my question of the day. So I'll be making a decision," he said.
The exchange came less than a week after Israel's government told reporters that Barghouti would not be included in any future prisoner deal, reiterating its longstanding opposition to his release.
Barghouti, a senior Fatah figure arrested in 2002, has long been regarded by Palestinians and international diplomats as the only potential unifying leader capable of bridging divides between rival factions.
Trump's comments mark the first time since returning to office that he has publicly entertained the possibility of reviewing Barghouti's imprisonment, despite Israel's categorical rejection of the idea.
The president's remarks on Palestinian leadership extended beyond Barghouti. Asked who currently leads the Palestinians, Trump replied: "They don't have a leader right now, at least a visible leader, and they don't really want to, because every one of those leaders has been shot and killed. It's not a hot job."
He was then asked about Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom he met last month in Sharm el-Sheikh.
"He's a much different man in person than he is in public," Trump said. "He congratulated me. He said, 'You've done something that - I've been through seven Presidents. … You've done things that no other president would have done'."
Trump described Abbas as "respected by the Palestinians" and "reasonable", but when asked whether he could lead a post-war Gaza, he responded: "He's probably not."
The interview also saw Trump outlining plans to visit Gaza as part of a new initiative he called the Board of Peace, which he said he had been asked to chair.
"It was not something I wanted to do, believe me," Trump told TIME. "But the Board of Peace is going to be a very powerful group of people, and it’s going to have a lot of power in terms of the Middle East."
The Board of Peace is part of Trump's proposed post-war governance framework for Gaza, intended to oversee reconstruction and political transition under international supervision. It would include global figures such as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and would eventually hand power to a restructured Palestinian Authority.
Trump told TIME that "the Middle East has never been brought together" but claimed it "really has been brought together now, other than Hamas, which is a fringe group". He added that Hamas had "signed the document" and "agreed to all this stuff".
"Now they can go against it. That's fine, and then nobody would mind if we went in and took them to task," Trump said in remarks that indicate the Washington expects Hamas to disarm and give up power - or face a potential confrontation with the US.
Israel has not commented on Trump's remarks. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister's Office said there would be "no release of Marwan Barghouti - now or in any future exchange".
Days later, the Palestinian Asra Media Office (AMO) reported that the 66-year-old Barghouti "lost consciousness and suffered fractures in four ribs" after being assaulted by a special Israeli prison unit during his transfer from Rimon Prison to Megiddo Prison.