Egypt said to float release of 8 hostages in new truce; Israel denies receiving terms
Proposal reportedly a compromise between Hamas offer of 5 hostages, Israeli insistence on 11; Hamas delegation set to arrive in Cairo for meeting with mediators
Egypt has put forward a new proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to an Arab report Monday, though an Israeli official said that Jerusalem has not received any new offer from Cairo.
The London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported, citing an informed Egyptian source, that the new proposal provides for the return of eight living hostages and the bodies of eight slain hostages in exchange for the release of large numbers of Palestinian terrorists and security prisoners and a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days.
The source said that the proposal represents a compromise between a Hamas offer to release five hostages in return for a 50-day truce and an Israeli demand for the release of 11 living hostages.
The report also said that, according to the new proposal, the eight living hostages would not be released all at once but in stages. So far, neither side has issued a final response to the proposal, it said.
After the report was published, an Israel official told The Times of Israel that, as of Monday evening, Jerusalem had not received any updated Egyptian proposal for a hostage release deal with Hamas.
The official added that Israel is aware of Egyptian efforts to come up with a new formula for a truce deal.
The reported Egyptian proposal came as a Hamas delegation was expected to arrive in Cairo for discussions with mediators about possible developments in the ceasefire negotiations, according to the Qatari news site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
The hostages were taken on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led thousands of terrorists in an invasion of southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
A week-long ceasefire in November 2023 saw the release of over 100 hostages, mostly women and children.
In January 2025, another ceasefire began, and during the ensuing weeks, dozens of hostages, alive and dead, were returned in small batches in return for boosted humanitarian aid to Gaza and over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
The sides had agreed to hold talks on a second and third phase that would include the return of all hostages, end the war, and ensure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
However, the truce collapsed after the first stage when Israel refused to enter negotiations on the terms of the subsequent phases, and Hamas refused to extend the first, leading Jerusalem to resume military operations in Gaza.
Hamas has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the January deal, which envisioned a transition to phase two on March 2. That phase is supposed to see the return of all remaining living hostages in exchange for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent end to the war.
While Netanyahu signed onto the deal, he has long rejected the latter two clauses of phase two, arguing that they would allow Hamas to remain in power. Accordingly, he has refused to hold talks regarding phase two of the deal, which were supposed to begin on February 2.
Fifty-nine hostages remain in captivity, though only 24 of them are thought to still be alive, according to Israeli intelligence assessments.
Fears for the lives of the remaining hostages were heightened after Hamas said in a statement Friday that it would not move living Israeli hostages out of areas in the Gaza Strip that the Israel Defense Forces ordered to be evacuated in recent days. Hamas said the Israeli government would be at fault if captives were killed.
The IDF has issued evacuation orders for the entire Rafah area, Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, and other areas in the Strip’s north. The statement also said that Hamas was keeping the hostages “under strict security measures, which are extremely dangerous to their lives.”
Hamas previously said it would execute hostages if Israeli troops are seen approaching areas where they are being held. In August, Hamas murdered six hostages in Rafah as Israeli forces were operating nearby.
Since Israel resumed intensive military operations in Gaza on March 18, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its unverified figures.
The Times of Israel Community.