Egypt pitches new proposal for Hamas-Israel ceasefire
Under the new proposal, Israel would commit to entering longer-term discussions once Hamas releases a first group of 20 hostages over the truce period.
Egypt offered a new proposal for a truce between Israel and Hamas in which some Israeli hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a three-week ceasefire, in a bid to stave off an Israeli military offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Israel, which helped create the proposal, according to Egyptian officials, would commit to entering longer-term discussions once Hamas releases a first group of 20 hostages over the truce period – a formulation designed to overcome the militant group’s reluctance to release any hostages without any prospect of ending the war.
The move represents the latest effort by mediators to revive negotiations that have dragged on for about five months without an agreement.
During that period, the fighting has thrown the roughly two million Gazans into survival mode and more than doubled the number of those killed since Israel’s invasion to over 34,000, according to Palestinian health officials. Death figures from the Palestinian side don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
In Israel, meanwhile, relatives of hostages seized during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault that precipitated the crisis are pressing the Israeli government to do more to find out whether their family members are still alive. In recent weeks they have stepped up street demonstrations aimed at getting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give priority to the captives’ release over a continued military operation backed by far-right members of the government.
Domestic pressure for Israel to reach a deal is mounting. Benny Gantz, one of three members in Israel’s war cabinet, said Sunday the Israeli government shouldn’t reject a “responsible outline for the return of the hostages” or it shouldn’t have the right to exist and lead the military campaign in Gaza. However he said that outline shouldn’t entail ending the war.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a televised interview Saturday with Israeli media that Israel would delay an operation in Rafah in exchange for a hostage deal.
A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office declined to comment. The U.S., Israel’s most important ally, has been pressuring Israel not to invade Rafah. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking on Sunday at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, urged the U.S. government to stop Israel from carrying out such an offensive. “America is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Arab officials on Monday and Tuesday to help secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israeli hostages to be freed under the Egyptian proposal would include children, women – including female soldiers – and elderly people in need of urgent medical attention, Egyptian officials said. They would be swapped for around 500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. The handover would be followed by a 10-week ceasefire, during which the two sides would continue talking and at least 300,000 to 400,000 Palestinians now sheltering in Rafah would be able to return to their homes elsewhere in the strip.
As part of the proposal, Israeli forces would withdraw from a corridor dividing the north and south of the enclave but still screen Palestinians on the move, according to the officials.
Hamas’s political leadership said it would consult with its military wing and other factions in Gaza and revert to mediators in a few days over the proposal, the Egyptian officials said. Hamas’s Doha-based politburo is nominally in charge of the group’s affairs around the world, including in Gaza, but final decisions are made by Yahya Sinwar, the group’s military leader in Gaza.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators have made several stop-and-go attempts to get Israel and Hamas to agree on another ceasefire and hostage deal since Hamas released more than 100 hostages during a weeklong truce in November. Both sides were reluctant to co-operate – Israel because it wanted to continue fighting Hamas and Hamas because it didn’t want to relinquish Israeli hostages that were its main leverage.
A previous proposal put forth by American mediators said roughly 40 Israeli hostages should be released over the course of an initial six-week ceasefire, during which the two sides would also try to negotiate a way to end the war. Hamas has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of such a deal and said earlier this month it wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages.
In recent days, Hamas has released two videos of hostages in an effort to pressure the Israeli government. One of two American citizens held captive broke down in tears as he spoke. The recordings appear to be made recently with another hostage saying he had been held for 202 days. It has been 204 days since Oct. 7, when more than 240 hostages were taken from Israel and around 1,200 people there were killed.
Some 129 hostages taken on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, although at least 30 are dead, according to Israel. Israeli and American officials privately estimate that the number dead could be much higher.
The Israeli military said in a briefing Saturday that it has been increasing the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into the strip, with the opening of an additional land crossing to northern Gaza and a port route. It said the number of aid trucks entering had reached more than 400 a day. Roughly 500 commercial trucks and 100 aid trucks were entering Gaza before the war. The U.S. last week began construction of a pier that it says will help boost aid to the enclave within weeks.
About one million Palestinians have been forced from their homes to take shelter in Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’s last stronghold. Some of them have migrated again in expectation of an Israeli takeover of the city.
Dow Jones
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