Hamas has drafted a letter to US President Donald Trump requesting that he guarantee a 60-day truce in Gaza in exchange for releasing half of the remaining 48 hostages, Fox News reported Monday, citing a senior Trump administration official and a source involved in the negotiations.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed the report to The Times of Israel. It was unclear if the letter addressed the issue of Hamas’s disarmament, an Israeli demand that the terror group has rejected.
The report came as Hamas released a propaganda video of hostage Alon Ohel and captives’ families rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, demanding a ceasefire-hostage deal. Hostage families also met with the IDF chief of staff, who reportedly told them he was pressing the government to reach a ceasefire-hostage deal.
Meanwhile, Trump was set to meet with Arab and Muslim leaders in New York on Tuesday and reportedly present for the first time his own framework for ending the war in Gaza.
According to Fox News, Hamas’s letter to Trump is currently being held by mediator Qatar and will be given to Trump later in the week. Hamas’s leaders have not yet signed the letter to Trump, but may do so in the coming days, according to a source cited by Channel 12, who the network said was familiar with the letter’s contents.
Officials hope the letter will help jump-start the Gaza ceasefire-hostage talks, which have stalled after Israel earlier this month carried out an assassination attempt on Hamas’s leadership in the Qatari capital Doha, Fox News said.
White House Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff had in May put forward a proposal apparently similar to the one in the Hamas letter, with a 60-day ceasefire, a guarantee from Trump that Israel would not resume hostilities, and the release of about half the hostages, who then numbered 58.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly expressed support for the deal at the time, but Hamas made new demands that Witkoff said represented a rejection of the offer.
Netanyahu has since said he would seek only a comprehensive ceasefire-hostage deal that would release all the hostages and see Hamas disarmed. Witkoff has also said the US now seeks only a comprehensive deal.
The White House confirmed on Monday that Trump would hold a multilateral meeting with the leaders of eight Arab and Muslim countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
The meeting will gather the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the UAE and Jordan, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing.
During the meeting, Trump and Witkoff are expected to unveil the US plan for the post-war management of Gaza that former UK prime minister Tony Blair has been developing in recent months and that was revealed last week in The Times of Israel.
The plan would rally international stakeholders to form a transitional authority to take charge of the Strip before handing it over to the Palestinian Authority, despite Netanyahu’s stated opposition to the PA’s involvement in Gaza’s post-war governance.
According to Channel 12, Trump will discuss with his Arab and Muslim counterparts on Tuesday the possibility that they would fund and staff the transitional authorities, including by sending troops who would replace the IDF in Gaza.
An Arab official expected to take part in the meeting was quoted by Channel 12 as saying that “our understanding is that Trump wants our feedback and support for the American plan to end the war, and he will then promote it.”
A US official quoted by Channel 12 said the meeting will see Washington what it thinks is “the only way forward,” while Israeli officials cited by the network said Netanyahu is familiar with parts of the plan, but that it is not “the Netanyahu plan,” and that parts of it, such as the PA’s involvement, may be difficult for Israel to accept.
Trump is expected to discuss the plan in his meeting with Netanyahu next Monday. The Israeli premier is to depart for the US for the General Assembly after the end of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began Monday night.
It was unclear if Trump would address the plan during his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, before he meets with Arab and Muslim leaders.
Trump will speak about the “renewal of American strength around the world,” while calling out “globalist institutions that have significantly decayed the world order” and offering “his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” said Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman.
On Tuesday evening, Trump will host a reception for more than 100 world leaders before returning to Washington, where he will host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Leavitt added.
As diplomatic momentum built, Hamas released a video of hostage Alon Ohel on Monday, some two weeks after the terror group released the first video of Ohel since he was abducted from the Reim-area Nova music festival in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
In a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Ohel’s parents, Irit and Kobi Ohel, called the new video “psychological terrorism” and requested that the media refrain from publishing the footage or images from it.
They said the video showed their son was losing sight in his right eye. The parents demanded that Alon see an eye doctor before any more Gaza ceasefire negotiations are held or humanitarian aid is approved for the Strip.
The family said it was “shaken” by the footage, in which “it is clear that Alon is losing his vision in his right eye, and he is thin and frightened.”
“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, in these days of repentance, the fate of the lives of young Jews, Israeli citizens, is in the hands of the prime minister and the cabinet. Don’t break the nation of Israel’s heart,” the family said.
Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir met with seven hostage families and told them he supports reaching an agreement with Hamas, Channel 12 reported, echoing earlier reports that the general has urged the government to take a deal and warned against the new offensive to take over Gaza City.
Hostage families have railed against the offensive, saying it will endanger their loved ones. According to Channel 12, the families told Zamir that they would hold him responsible if the hostages were harmed. However, at the same time, they also said that they were relying only on him to secure their freedom, noting that the government had repeatedly rejected Zamir’s recommendation to take a hostage deal, the network reported.
Zamir, meanwhile, was quoted as telling the families that he was responsible for the actions of the IDF in Gaza and was always keeping the hostages in mind.
“I authorized this operation myself and the head of the Southern Command is carrying it out responsibly,” Zamir was quoted as saying. “I’m the one who authorizes any advances.”
Zamir was also quoted as saying that he supports a hostage-ceasefire deal even after launching the Gaza City offensive.
“I am in favor of an agreement, I’m pushing for an agreement, and I will continue to push to bring about an agreement,” he said, according to the report.
Marking the eve of Rosh Hashanah, hostage families and hundreds of their supporters set up a “no holiday” table outside Netanyahu’s home, demanding he bring the captives home.
“We will have no holiday or festival without them – the people of Israel will have no recovery. Tonight, on Rosh Hashanah eve, we sit at this empty table outside the Prime Minister’s residence, with all of Israel standing beside us. Only the people will bring the hostages home,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Hundreds, clad in traditional holiday white, join the families, conducting traditional prayer services for the Jewish New Year. Several waved the yellow flags that have come to symbolize the struggle to free the hostages.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.
They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Among the bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.