Israel submits softened hostage deal offer as Hamas delegation heads to Cairo
Officials tell ToI that Israel slightly reduced the number of living hostages it is demanding but wants speedier releases; agreed to withdraw from recently captured areas, hold talks on permanent ceasefire
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Israel has come down slightly from an earlier demand for 11 hostages to be released as part of a deal with Hamas to revive a ceasefire that collapsed last month, two officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.
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.
Seeking to meet the sides halfway, Egypt, in recent days, began pushing a new proposal that would see eight living hostages released.
After meeting with US President Donald Trump earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to soften his demands, the two officials said.
On Thursday, Israel submitted to Egyptian mediators its response to Cairo’s latest proposal, the officials said, 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.
Hamas’s top priority is securing a permanent ceasefire. However, an agreement by Israel to hold such talks would likely be viewed by the terror group as insufficient, as Israel already agreed to hold similar talks during the first phase of the now-collapsed ceasefire deal and did not adhere to that commitment, one of the officials said.
To address Hamas’s concerns, US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff has told Arab mediators that Trump would be willing to issue a public statement expressing Washington’s commitment to holding negotiations for a permanent Gaza ceasefire.
Egyptian mediators plan to share Israel’s response later this weekend with a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, which will arrive in Cairo on Saturday night, the officials said.
Hamas is expected to push back on many of Israel’s demands, and no resolution is expected in the coming days, the officials said.
However, recent weeks have seen Hamas back off its previous pledge not to agree to an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire.
Hamas had long insisted that it would only release additional hostages as part of the second phase of the deal, which envisions the release of all remaining living captives in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
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.
For its part, a senior Palestinian official told The Times of Israel earlier this month that Hamas is willing to release all of the hostages at once if Israel agrees to a permanent end to the war.
Netanyahu has long refused such an exchange, arguing that it would leave Hamas in power.
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.
The Times of Israel Community.