Blog

Hamas on Monday informed mediators that it accepted the ceasefire-hostage release deal proposal that was submitted to the group a day earlier, which sources said involves a 60-day pause and the release of 10 living captives, as mediators scramble to find an agreement before Israel launches its planned mission to conquer Gaza City.

“The Hamas movement and the Palestinian factions have conveyed their approval on the proposal presented yesterday by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators,” the terror group said in a statement.

After the agreement was reported, an Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel that Jerusalem had received Hamas’s latest proposal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemingly dismissed the Hamas response and signaled that Israel was moving forward with its plan to take over the Palestinian enclave’s largest city and transfer its population to the southern Strip. “We can see clearly that Hamas is under immense pressure,” Netanyahu said.

An Israeli official later said that Jerusalem’s commitment to a comprehensive deal remains unchanged. “Israel’s position has not changed — [regarding both] the release of all the hostages and adherence to the other conditions defined for ending the war,” the official said in a statement.

Notably, however, Netanyahu did not publicly rule out the partial deal being advanced — a possible indication that Jerusalem is still weighing its options. And several Hebrew media reports said Netanyahu would examine the proposal.

Revealing details of the proposal that Hamas said it had approved, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya presented Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Sunday night with an updated ceasefire and hostage release proposal that backs down from the vast majority of the demands raised by the terror group that led to the collapse of talks last month.

The talks have taken place in Cairo with Egyptian mediation alongside Qatar and the United States, and with Turkey involved in brokering their resumption last week.

The proposal agreed to on Monday by Hamas would see the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian security prisoners during a 60-day truce, the diplomat said, adding that the deal will also see the release of bodies of slain hostages.

A source in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, revealed similar details about the proposal and added that after the release of the first 10 hostages, “the remaining captives would be released in a second phase, with immediate negotiations to follow for a broader deal” for a permanent end to “the war and aggression” with international guarantees.

The source added that “all factions are supportive of what was presented” by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, referring to the myriad of different Palestinian armed groups that operate in the Strip, largely under Hamas oversight.

The proposal was received by Israel on Monday evening, but Jerusalem has insisted that it is no longer interested in partial deals, saying that it will only agree to end the war if Hamas releases all of the hostages at once, among other conditions.

The Arab mediators believe that the Israeli demands do not give them anything to work with, and instead have been working to first secure a partial deal, albeit one they are framing as a “pathway to a comprehensive agreement.”

Similar to the proposal crafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this year, the latest proposal envisions negotiations on the terms of a permanent ceasefire commencing at the start of the 60-day truce, with the mediators aiming to secure an agreement on those details by the end of the two-month temporary ceasefire, the Arab diplomat says.

A diplomatic source quoted by Axios said the deal Hamas accepted is “98% similar” to the Witkoff proposal, which Hamas rejected last month.

A Channel 12 report said Hamas had reduced the number of security prisoners it wants freed, and eased its stance on the buffer zone that Israel would retain along the Gaza border. Israel is insisting on a strip between one and 1.2 kilometers wide, the report said. Hamas, which previously demanded a maximum of 800 meters, is now willing to accept between 800 meters and one kilometer, it added.

PM says Hamas under ‘immense pressure’

As the reports of Hamas’s response emerged, Netanyahu appeared largely dismissive, saying the terror group is under “immense pressure,” as Israel advances its plans to take over Gaza City.

Netanyahu said he had met earlier Monday with the IDF’s top brass to discuss Israel’s Gaza City takeover “and the completion of our missions.”

“Like you, I hear the reports in the media, and from them, you can get the impression of one thing: that Hamas is under immense pressure,” the premier said, speaking to senior officers at the IDF’s Gaza Division headquarters near the Gaza border community of Re’im, in a video issued by his office.

As talks in Cairo on a partial deal between Arab mediators and Hamas have advanced over the past several days, Netanyahu has insisted that he is no longer interested in such proposals and will only agree to end the war if Hamas releases all of the hostages in one go, disarms, allows for the demilitarization of Gaza, grants Israel overall security control of the Strip, and hands over control to a body other than the Palestinian Authority.

But the Arab mediators are hoping that the rhetoric out of Jerusalem is just a pressure tactic and that Netanyahu will come around if Hamas agrees to walk back the demands it made last month that led to the collapse of talks on a partial deal.

Hebrew media reported Sunday that despite saying a day earlier that he would only consider “comprehensive” hostage deals that return all 50 captives, Netanyahu is in fact prepared to consider a partial ceasefire and hostage-release agreement with Hamas.

Despite that, an unnamed Israeli official on Monday stressed to reporters that “Israel’s position has not changed — [regarding both] the release of all the hostages and adherence to the other conditions defined for ending the war.”

Katz: Hamas only negotiating out of ‘fear’

Similarly dismissive, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that Hamas only returned to the negotiating table “because of its fear that we seriously intend to conquer Gaza City.”

Katz, speaking to the senior IDF officers during his visit to the Gaza Division with Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said capturing Gaza City “will lead to the defeat of Hamas.”

“The focus on Gaza City derives from it being a military, governmental and symbolic center of gravity,” Katz added. “The leadership is there, and there remain the central infrastructures of the military wing. Hamas also knows that this is now the core of its rule.”

Therefore, Katz said, “We see that for the first time, after weeks in which Hamas was not at all willing to discuss any deal for the release of hostages, even though Turkey had already approached it and Qatar had approached it, suddenly it is on the table.”

“The reason is clear: only [Hamas’s] fear that we seriously intend to conquer Gaza [City] makes it willing to discuss,” Katz added.

At the same conference of top military brass attended by Netanyahu and Katz, Zamir said Israel is at a “turning point in the war” and ahead of “the next stage” of an offensive against Hamas.

“We are in the midst of a multi-front, prolonged, and unprecedented campaign. We are at a turning point in the war, ahead of moving to the next stage of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which focuses on deepening the blow against Hamas in Gaza City,” Zamir said.

“We are preparing and approving plans. You must prepare all frameworks for the continuation of operational developments,” Zamir said.

Trump: Hostages will only be freed ‘when Hamas is destroyed’

The reports of Hamas’s agreement came hours after US President Donald Trump declared in a social media post that the hostages held in Gaza will only be freed “when Hamas is confronted and destroyed,” apparently backing Israel’s planned assault on Gaza City.

“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!” the president wrote. “The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.”

“Remember, I was the one who negotiated and got hundreds of hostages freed and released into Israel (and America!),” he said, exaggerating the number of people freed in the January-March ceasefire deal, when Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives.

One additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, was released by the terror group in May as a “gesture” to the United States.

The Arab diplomat who spoke with The Times of Israel on Monday speculated that the Truth Social post was a “pressure tactic” aimed at bringing Hamas to accept the terms of Witkoff’s original hostage deal proposal, and added that the proposal submitted by Hamas is extremely similar to the one proposed by Witkoff.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014. Twenty of the hostages are believed by Israel to be alive, with 28 declared dead by Israeli authorities and “grave concerns” for the well-being of two others.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.