Hamas said Saturday it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a truce and hostage deal, amid intensified efforts to broker an agreement.
“Today, the Hamas movement received the official Zionist occupation response to the movement’s position, which was delivered to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas’s political arm in Gaza, said in a statement.
“The movement will study this proposal, and upon completion of its study, it will submit its response,” he said.
The terror group official gave no details of Israel’s offer, but said it was in response to a proposal from Hamas two weeks ago.
The most recent round of talks between Israeli officials and a top-level Egyptian delegation sent to discuss efforts to reach a hostage deal with Hamas and Israel’s impending offensive in Rafah ended on Friday.
Israel reportedly warned it was the “last chance” for a truce agreement before the launch of a long-planned assault on the southern Gaza city.
However, there has been “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer,” said Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence services.
A senior Israeli official told Ynet that the Egyptians seemed willing to pressure Hamas toward reaching a deal, and that “in the background, there are very serious intentions from Israel to move ahead in Rafah.”
The Israeli official said Israel had warned it would not agree to foot-dragging on a hostage deal by Hamas, particularly its leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, in a bid to forestall the Israel Defense Forces operation.
Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 massacre, is widely believed to be hiding in the Hamas tunnel network in the Rafah area, with hostages in close proximity as human shields.
However, Israel faces international pressure over the impending operation due to concerns it could worsen the already dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The Israeli official confirmed that Israel is prepared to settle for the release of fewer than the 40 living hostages as earlier proposed, but also that it will not agree to only 20 hostages being freed, as Hamas reportedly suggested in recent indirect contacts.
Rather, said the report, Israel believes that Hamas holds 33 living hostages who meet the so-called “humanitarian” designation — that is, women, children, men aged over 50 or the sick — and is insisting that they all be freed.
The Channel 12 report said while this could be a major sticking point with Hamas, for now, this was not the case.
There was no mention in the report of whether this would be the first phase of a wider deal for all the hostages, of the length of the proposed accompanying truce, or of Hamas’s relentless demand that Israel halt the war altogether as a condition for any further hostage releases.
The official also said Israel was willing to make further major concessions such as allowing the return of residents to northern Gaza, and possibly to do so without the preferred checks to prevent Hamas members from returning with them. Israel also indicated a willingness to withdraw forces from a key corridor bisecting Gaza in two, Channel 12 said.
Channel 12 quoted unnamed defense sources as saying that while Netanyahu should be pushing for a deal as hard as he can, the premier fears opposition on the far-right flank of his coalition, notably from Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
The outlet also said that the defense sources regard tackling Hamas’s four battalions inside Rafah as less critical than securing the Gaza-Egypt border at Rafah to prevent Hamas smuggling in arms and weapons materials.
Israel and Egypt, the report said, are coordinating on a sensor system along the so-called Philadelphi border corridor between Gaza and Egypt.
As the war drags on and casualties mount, there has been growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement, with the United States pushing for a hostage-truce deal leading to a permanent ceasefire.
However, talks have been stalled for months, as both sides accuse each other of sabotaging potential deals.
It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive. Hamas has also been holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.