Mossad chief David Barnea and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer are expected to meet US Special Envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff during their trip to Washington on Tuesday, Hebrew media reported, with the top officials persisting in their efforts to reach a hostage release deal with Hamas.
The Walla news site reported the two arrived in Washington earlier in the day, citing Israeli officials.
According to foreign media reports, a deal being discussed would see around 10 living hostages and 10 bodies of hostages, along with hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, released in two stages during a roughly two-month ceasefire. During that time, Israel and Hamas would hold negotiations on the terms of a permanent truce.
Channel 12 reported Tuesday night that Hamas representatives in negotiations are now prepared to accept a 90-day truce for the partial release of hostages — a time frame rejected by both Israel and Witkoff, who is pressing for a 60-day deal.
The report also said Hamas is still insisting on some kind of commitment to ending the war, such as a public statement by US President Donald Trump.
The two sides had agreed to negotiate an end to the war as part of the last hostage deal signed in January, but Israel ultimately refused, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering the resumption of the war in March.
According to the Ynet news site, Witkoff and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler told a group of hostage families Monday that they were optimistic that progress could be made in the talks in the coming days.
However, a source directly involved in the negotiations told The Times of Israel on Monday that the talks remain stuck, adding that mediators have yet to come up with a framework for a temporary deal that allows Hamas to claim that it will lead to a permanent end to the war, while also allowing Israel to claim that it has not made an up-front commitment for a permanent ceasefire.
Foreign media had on Monday cited unnamed Hamas officials declaring that the group had accepted a deal proposed by Witkoff, who denied that the terror group had accepted his proposal, and called on it to agree to a temporary offer that he said Israel would accept. At a Jerusalem Day ceremony, Netanyahu called Hamas “stubborn” and said Witkoff agreed with him.
Meanwhile, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Tuesday called on Dermer to resign, noting that 100 days had almost passed since he had taken over as head of the Israeli negotiating team, and yet he had not secured the release of any hostage through talks.
“With your appointment, you promised us, the families, that you would bring about a breakthrough in the negotiations and achieve the release of additional hostages. In reality, the complete opposite happened: 100 days. Zero hostages,” the forum wrote to Dermer.
“Not only has not a single hostage been released thanks to the Israeli negotiating team you led, but it also appears that you are leading the enormous efforts currently being made to torpedo any agreement that might return all the hostages and end the war, against the will of the absolute majority of the people. This is a resounding failure,” the letter said.
On Monday, Netanyahu drew backlash from hostage families after he said during a video statement that he hoped to make an announcement regarding hostages held in Gaza “today or tomorrow,” before issuing a clarification, explaining that the premier’s comments should not be seen as a signal of an impending deal.
“The prime minister meant that we will not give up on freeing our hostages, and if we don’t achieve that, hopefully in the coming days, we will achieve it later on,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that “Hamas continues to cling to its refusal.”
Netanyahu also falsely claimed in the Monday video that the January hostage deal was signed after he replaced the heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad with Dermer, as head of Israel’s negotiating team. That shake-up did not take place until February. Since then, only US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander has been released, and Dermer was not involved in those negotiations.
While Trump is increasingly speaking of his desire to quickly and permanently end the conflict in Gaza, Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Israel dismantles Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, frees the hostages, demilitarizes Gaza, exiles Hamas’s leaders, and implements Trump’s plan to relocate Gazans.
Proponents of a ceasefire have argued that Israel has already maximized its military gains against Hamas, and that the IDF is currently fighting an insurgency that will remain in Gaza as long as Netanyahu refuses to introduce a viable Palestinian alternative to Hamas rule. Arab countries have pushed for the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza and have offered to assist in the post-war management of the Strip if invited by the PA, but Netanyahu has refused, likening the authority to Hamas.
Netanyahu called back the Israeli negotiation team from Doha last week, citing Hamas’s refusal to accept Witkoff’s proposal for a short-term ceasefire in exchange for the release of half the living hostages, which Israel agreed to.
Negotiations are unfolding as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. Israel partially lifted its blockade last week, after 78 days during which no humanitarian aid was allowed in. A new US-backed initiative for distributing aid in a manner that circumvents Hamas got off to a rocky start Tuesday, with thousands of Palestinians temporarily overrunning one of the aid distribution facilities and looting some of the supplies.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 58 hostages — 57 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said. The body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014 is also being held.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.