LAST UPDATE | 26 May 2025

A HAMAS SOURCE, speaking to news agency AFP, said the group had accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal presented by mediators that reportedly involves the releasing of 10 hostages in two batches and a 70-day truce.

The outline of the new potential deal was revealed as Israel ramped up its offensive in the Palestinian territory, and follows previous rounds of talks that have failed to reach a breakthrough ever since a two-month ceasefire fell apart in mid-March.

“Hamas has agreed to the new proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff, which the movement received from mediators,” the Hamas source told AFP.

The deal, they added, included “a 70-day truce in exchange for the release of 10 hostages in two batches, and during the truce, negotiations would begin on a permanent ceasefire with American guarantees”.

However, Witkoff – US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East – later said Hamas had not agreed to a proposed deal.

A spokesman for Witkoff told AFP that he disputed Hamas’s claim that the group had agreed to his proposed deal and quoted the envoy as saying “What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable.”

Another Palestinian source close to the negotiations told AFP the new proposal laid out “the release of 10 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a 70-day truce, a partial (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (and) the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners”.

The source added that mediators presented the proposal “over the past few days”.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have all had a hand in mediating the ceasefire talks throughout the war.

The proposal, the second source said, would involve the release of “five living Israeli hostages during the first week of the agreement’s implementation, and five others before the end of the truce period”.

Israel had said last week that it was recalling its senior Gaza hostage negotiators from talks in Doha “for consultation”, while leaving some lower-level members of its team in the Qatari capital.

Israel has recently intensified its campaign in Gaza, calling it an “expansion of the battle” against Hamas.

The last ceasefire between the sides fell apart amid disagreements over how to move forward, with Israel resuming its operations in Gaza on 18 March.

On 2 March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on the territory that it said was aimed at forcing concessions from Hamas, with UN agencies since warning it has created critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

Israel partially eased the blockade last week, and aid trucks have begun to trickle back into Gaza, though humanitarian groups have urged it to allow more supplies to enter faster.

© AFP 2025 

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