Trump admin updates: Trump marks 1 year since assassination attempt in Butler, PA

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met again Tuesday at the White House, where they focused their discussion on efforts to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas, Netanyahu said.

The pair spoke about Israel "not relenting, even for a moment" in its determination to free those who are still being held, the Israeli leader said in a statement released by his office on Wednesday. Israeli officials said Sunday that Hamas is still holding 50 hostages, including 20 who are thought to be alive.

"But we are determined to achieve all of our objectives: The release of all of our hostages -- the living and the deceased, and the elimination of Hamas's military and governing capabilities, thereby ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel," Netanyahu said.

The administration hosted Netanyahu at a state dinner on Monday evening. Netanyahu said Wednesday he also met briefly with Vice President JD Vance at the White House.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected to discuss a possible ceasefire deal with Hamas when he met with President Trump on Tuesday.

“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas' military,” Netanyahu said speaking to reporters in the Capitol following a private meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson. “And governance capabilities, because Gaza must have different future for our sake, for everyone's sake, and no country will settle for less. We certainly will not. These are all things that I discussed with President Trump. I may discuss further with him later in this visit.”

At the State Department, spokesperson Tammy Bruce repeatedly expressed optimism that a ceasefire deal would be reached “by the end of the week” -- but didn’t say exactly when or exactly what gave the administration confidence in that timeline.

“We are hopeful that by the end of this week we’ll have an agreement that brings us to 60-day ceasefire,” she said, echoing Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.

-ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Shannon Kingston

President Donald Trump commented further on Tuesday about the apparent reversal on sending more weapons to Ukraine.

The Pentagon last week froze the shipment of some air defense and precision guided weapons to Kyiv and said all munition shipments oversees were under review. On Monday, Trump announced he was planning to send more weapons to the country as it fights Russia's invasion.

"We wanted to put defensive weapons because Putin is not -- he's not treating human beings right. He's killing too many people. So we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I have approved that," Trump said as he met with his Cabinet at the White House on Tuesday.

A reporter then asked the president, who was flanked on one side by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, "So who ordered the pause last week?"

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" Trump responded.

During his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Donald Trump floated the possibility of taking over governance of Washington.

"We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to," Trump said. "We could run D.C. We're looking at D.C. We don't want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well."

"I mean, in the sense that we would we would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we'd get the best person to run it. And we know the crime would be down to a minimum, would be much less," the president continued. "And, you know, we're thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want a capital that's run flawlessly, and it wouldn't be hard for us to do it. And we've had a good relationship with the mayor and we're testing it to see if it works."