Israel is waiting for a response to its latest proposal for a ceasefire-hostage release deal after a delegation from the terror group arrived in Cairo over the weekend and the US is seeking to pressure the sides to move forward, according to reports in Israeli media outlets.
The Haaretz daily, citing Palestinian sources involved in the talks, reported that Cairo and Doha are working with the US toward a potential additional stage of the ceasefire-hostage release deal reached in January that would also include talks to end the 18-month war.
The report also claims that Egypt has put forward a proposal under which Hamas would demilitarize under Cairo’s supervision as part of a permanent ceasefire deal.
Hamas, the report claims, is lowering expectations for results in the current round of negotiations, but believes there is an opportunity to reach a ceasefire deal before mid-May, when US President Donald Trump is slated to visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
Meanwhile a report in the Ynet news site on Sunday said that Israel is waiting for a a response from the terror group to a proposal to release nine or 10 living hostages — including US-Israeli Edan Alexander, who was featured in a Hamas propaganda video released Saturday — slightly down from earlier demands that 11 hostages be freed in any next stage.
The Ynet report claims, without citing any sources, that the US has promised Hamas that if it agrees to free more than eight hostages it will provide the group with a commitment that Israel will enter talks aimed at ending the ongoing war.
A Hamas official told AFP on Friday that it hoped its delegation in Cairo, headed by the group’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, would lead to “real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza.”
In a statement Sunday evening, Netanyahu’s office said that during a conversation between the premier and the family of hostage Eitan Mor, he stressed that efforts to free those held captive by Hamas are continuing “at this very moment.”
The Hebrew media reports echoed reporting from The Times of Israel on Friday, in which two officials familiar with the talks said Israel had come down slightly from an earlier demand for 11 living hostages to be released in order to revive the ceasefire deal, and would instead agree to the release of eight.
After meeting with Trump last week in Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to soften his demands, the two officials said.
Last month, Israel demanded the release of 11 living hostages in exchange for restoring the ceasefire. For its part, Hamas said it was willing to release five living hostages. For several weeks, both sides refused to compromise further, and the talks remained at an impasse as Israel expanded its military campaign throughout the Gaza Strip, which it resumed on March 18.
On Thursday, Israel submitted to Egyptian mediators its response to Cairo’s latest proposal, the officials told ToI, revealing that the number of hostages Jerusalem now seeks is slightly lower than the 11 it demanded last month without further specifying. However, Israel is demanding that the living hostages be freed during the first two weeks of the 45-day ceasefire, rejecting previous Hamas demands that the releases take place periodically during the duration of the truce.
Moreover, the Israeli proposal seeks to lower the ratio of prisoners — including those serving life sentences — who will be released for each hostage, one of the officials said. In addition, the latest Israeli response seeks the release of 16 bodies of Israelis still held in Gaza, while offering to release the bodies of Gazans held by Israel in exchange.
Israel would also agree to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza and withdraw its troops to where they were positioned in the Strip before it resumed fighting on March 18 and recaptured swaths of the enclave.
In its response, Israel agreed to hold negotiations on the terms of a permanent ceasefire once the truce has been restored, said the two officials.
While Israel signed onto the phased framework that went into place in January, Netanyahu has long insisted that he would not agree to a permanent ceasefire nor a full withdrawal of Israeli forces until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities have been fully dismantled.
Accordingly, he largely refused to even hold negotiations regarding the exact terms of phase two, which the deal stipulates were supposed to have started on February 3. Instead, he has sought to extend the first phase of the deal through proposals that would see the release of additional hostages while still allowing Israel to resume fighting against Hamas.
The premier is backed by many of his hardline coalition partners who have threatened to collapse his government if he agrees to end the war.
However, successive polls have indicated that the government is out of step with a majority of Israelis who back ending the war started by Hamas’s October, 7, 2023, attack in exchange for the release of all 59 remaining hostages — 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.