US President Donald Trump said Friday mediators were “very close” to reaching a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“We’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, and we have a chance of that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
However, Hamas said it was still reviewing a proposal from the US, which it received on Thursday, while adding that the offer failed to satisfy its demands.
The proposal also stipulates that the sides still need to agree on the parameters of the IDF’s partial withdrawal from Gaza during the temporary truce.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel that Hamas was disappointed with the proposal, since it still gives Israel the option to resume fighting at the end of the temporary truce, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to do.
Not wanting to be pegged as the party to blame for the impasse, Hamas is leaning toward accepting the proposal, while submitting a series of reservations, the two sources said, in what will likely drag the talks out for at least several more days.
While Netanyahu told hostage families on Thursday that he was principally supportive of the deal on the table, he has yet to bring it before the cabinet to be approved, and several far-right members of his coalition have already come out against it.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that Hamas must agree to the proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff or be destroyed.
“The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the ‘Witkoff Deal’ for the release of the hostages — or be annihilated,” he said.
Israel has repeatedly said that destruction of the terror group was a key aim of the war.
Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March following a short-lived truce. Conditions on the ground for Gaza’s civilians are dire, with the United Nations warning that the entire population is at risk of famine.
Food shortages in Gaza have persisted, with aid only trickling in after the partial lifting by Israel of a more than two-month blockade. Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, on Friday called Gaza “the hungriest place on earth.”
“It’s the only defined area — a country or defined territory within a country — where you have the entire population at risk of famine,” he said.
Later, the UN condemned the “looting of large quantities of medical equipment” and other supplies “intended for malnourished children” from one of its Gaza warehouses by armed individuals.
Aid groups have previously warned that desperation for food and medicine among Gazans was causing security to deteriorate.
Friday saw Qatar say it was intensively engaged with the United States and Egypt “to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and end the war.”
The Gulf country’s Ambassador to the United Nations Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani told reporters at the UN: “Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal. We are very determined to find an ending to this horrific situation in Gaza.”
Throughout the war, Qatar has been a key location for negotiations, and it has served as an intermediary for Hamas
According to a copy of Witkoff’s latest proposal, the authenticity of which was confirmed to The Times of Israel by two sources familiar with the negotiations, Hamas would release 10 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza and return the bodies of 18 deceased hostages during a 60-day ceasefire.
In return, Israel would release 125 Palestinian terror convicts serving life sentences, 1,111 Gazans detained since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and 180 bodies of Palestinians currently held by Israel.
The IDF would also pull back from some areas where troops are currently deployed; the parameters of the pullback would be finalized “during proximity negotiations.”
Netanyahu told hostages’ families during a meeting on Thursday that he was prepared to move forward with the proposal, the Axios news site reported, while Channel 12 reported that he told the families he “principally accepts” the document. However, the TV report also quoted him saying he was “not ready to end the war without eliminating Hamas.”
Meanwhile, right-wing ministers and some hawkish hostage families came out in opposition to the proposed deal, arguing that Hamas was weakened and that now was the time to pile pressure on the terrorist organization to surrender. A decision to accept the proposal would have to be approved by the Israeli cabinet.
Hostages held by terror groups in Gaza include 57 of the 251 abducted on October 7, 2023, and the body of a soldier held by Hamas since 2014.
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.
Agencies contributed to this report.