Hamas official: Terror group to submit response to Witkoff’s Gaza proposal today

Hamas will present its response to a ceasefire-hostage release deal proposal made by US special envoy Steve Witkoff later today, a senior official in the terror group tells al-Risala, a Hamas mouthpiece.

According to a copy of Witkoff’s latest proposal, the authenticity of which was confirmed to The Times of Israel by two sources familiar with the negotiations, Hamas would release 10 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza and return the bodies of 18 deceased hostages during a 60-day ceasefire.

In return, Israel would release 125 Palestinian terror convicts serving life sentences, 1,111 Gazans detained since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and 180 bodies of Palestinians currently held by Israel.

The US proposal stipulates that the sides still need to agree on the parameters of the IDF’s partial withdrawal from Gaza during the temporary truce.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel that Hamas was disappointed with the proposal, since it still gives Israel the option to resume fighting at the end of the temporary truce, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to do.

Not wanting to be pegged as the party to blame for the impasse, Hamas is leaning toward accepting the proposal, while submitting a series of reservations, the two sources said, in what will likely drag the talks out for at least several more days.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.