A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is “more likely than not,” a senior Israeli official said Wednesday, while noting that gaps remain between the sides over whether and when the war would end.
“I believe a deal is attainable,” the official said in a briefing with reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, but added: “It’s not simple. Negotiating with Hamas isn’t easy or short, and I can’t give a timeline, but it is within reach.”
The official’s comments signaled a measure of optimism amid a fresh push for a truce in Gaza that would ostensibly see the return of roughly half of the Israeli hostages. US President Donald Trump was due to host the prime minister of Qatar, where negotiations are being held for dinner on Wednesday, in an effort to advance an agreement.
But both Israel and Hamas acknowledged that the core issue that has long divided the sides — the end of the war — had yet to be resolved.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that talks were at a “critical juncture” and that if no hostage deal was reached soon, the military would “intensify and expand” its offensive against Hamas “as much as possible.”
“In the coming days, we will know whether there is a deal or not,” he told troops during a visit to Gaza, adding that the IDF would “enter additional areas and continue operations as we have until now.”
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, accused Israel of wanting to “prolong military control” of Gaza for the long term. He told AFP Wednesday that Israel “has not yet delivered any new or revised maps regarding military withdrawals from the Gaza Strip” and has shown “unwillingness to withdraw from the Strip or to stop the war.”
The Israeli official said Israel has indeed not committed to ending the war. He described the ceasefire as a temporary truce, during which the parties would hold talks on a potential permanent halt to the fighting.
“There’s a gap between the sides regarding the end of the war,” he said. “If we bridge it, great.”
He went on to say that Israel was “not glued to war; the war itself isn’t an ideology; it’s a tool. There may be an effort, possibly a major one by various actors, to bring about [a diplomatic solution]. We’re not there yet, it’s a bit premature, but that effort may come.”
The official said Israel remains committed to ending Hamas’s control of Gaza and to freeing the remaining hostages. “Israel knows what its aim is. I can simplify it very clearly in four words,” he said, conveying the message in English: “Hostages back, Hamas out.”
The official said the deal on the table would see eight living hostages released on the first day of the truce, followed by two more on the 50th day, in addition to 18 dead hostages returned throughout the ceasefire. Hamas is currently holding 50 hostages, including the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The official added that divisions persist within Israel’s security cabinet over the concessions it should make in the Doha talks.
“Some members of the cabinet said not to withdraw from the territory we captured in Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” he said, referring to Israel’s intensified ground invasion of Gaza that began in May, in which the military captured much of the enclave’s territory.
“I told them, ‘Then say you don’t want a deal,'” the official said.
One significant shift that has now made a deal more likely is Hamas’s increased openness to a ceasefire framework proposed by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel has accepted, the official said. That change emerged about two weeks ago, he said, “as a result of intense military pressure and American engagement, along with Hamas’s desire to reach a framework. As a result of that desire and Qatar’s ties with Hamas, Qatar is taking on a different kind of involvement.”
One sign of that involvement will come Wednesday night when Trump hosts Qatari Prime Minister Muhammad bin Abdulrahman al-Thani for dinner. The US president has repeatedly called for an end to the war in Gaza, and on Sunday said he hoped a ceasefire deal would be “straightened out” this week.