Hamas tells mediators it accepts Gaza ceasefire proposal

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Hamas has told Egyptian and Qatari mediators it is willing to accept a ceasefire proposal to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages, said a diplomat briefed on the talks.

They said the Palestinian militant group had agreed to a deal that would preserve “98 per cent” of a proposal first put forward by US envoy Steve Witkoff in May, which Israel had originally accepted. That plan calls for an initial 60-day truce.

“The proposal includes a path towards a comprehensive agreement to end the war,” the diplomat said, adding it would initially include the release of half of the hostages.

The latest diplomatic push came as Israel faces mounting pressure from allies to end its offensive in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel. The offensive devastated the enclave and caused widespread starvation.

Hamas said it had told mediators it accepted the proposal. Israel did not formally comment on the latest diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on far-right allies to hold his ruling coalition together, said in a video message on Monday evening: “Like you, I hear the reports in the media, and from them you can get the impression of one thing — Hamas is under nuclear [intense] pressure.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, wrote on social media that Netanyahu “has no mandate to pursue a partial deal”.

Previous bouts of optimism about prospects for a deal have been dashed as the warring parties have failed to reach agreements on key issues, including Hamas’s demand that a truce must lead to a permanent end to the conflict and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Netanyahu has repeatedly dismissed those demands.

Hamas had previously rejected Witkoff’s proposal amid disagreements over where Israel would redeploy troops in the besieged strip, as well as the militant group’s demands over the number and category of Palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange for Israeli hostages.

The diplomat said that under the proposal Hamas has agreed, Israeli forces would redeploy to the lines specified in Witkoff’s draft.

That original proposal had called for a 60-day pause in the fighting, the release of half the 50 remaining Israeli hostages — of whom 20 are believed to be alive — and a surge of aid into Gaza.

US President Donald Trump was to provide assurances that the conflict would halt for the period of the initial truce, while talks would take place on reaching a permanent halt to the war.

Those talks would address issues such as postwar governance and security arrangements for the enclave, as well as the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. The US, Egypt and Qatar would provide guarantees to extend the truce should additional time be needed to reach a permanent ceasefire, according to the draft proposal.

After the last diplomatic push broke down in July, Netanyahu’s far-right government this month approved a major new offensive to take over the entirety of Gaza City, which would displace up to 1mn Palestinians.

Netanyahu pressed the Israeli military — which opposes the scheme — to quicken the necessary preparations, including a call-up of reservists.

The veteran prime minister has in recent weeks laid out his own maximalist conditions for an end to the war. These include demands that Hamas lay down its arms and Gaza be fully demilitarised.

He has also said Israel must retain overall security control in the territory, including an expansive buffer zone, and must retain the ability to conduct raids into the strip.

An Israeli official said Israel’s position had not changed, including “the release of all the hostages and fulfilling the rest of the conditions that were defined for the end of the war”.

Arab mediators have sought to inject new momentum into the ceasefire talks amid the looming threat of Israel’s fresh offensive on Gaza City. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani held talks with Hamas’s officials in Cairo on Monday.

The diplomat said: “This step opens the way to reaching a comprehensive agreement in the best possible manner, without endangering the lives of the hostages through further intense military operations and avoiding a worsening of the humanitarian situation for the people of Gaza, who are already suffering greatly.”

Netanyahu has faced intensifying international pressure to end the war as starvation spreads across Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials. Most Israelis also want him to agree to a deal to free the hostages, with hundreds of thousands of people protesting in Tel Aviv on Sunday night.

Hamas seized more than 250 hostages and killed 1,200 people in its October 7 2023 attack.