Witkoff reportedly presents new proposal for Gaza truce extension to Israel, Hamas
Israel said to respond ‘positively’ to plan for Hamas to release 5 living and 10 dead hostages amid further extension of ceasefire; hostage families worry others would be left behind
After arriving in Doha earlier this week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff presented Israel and Hamas with a new outline to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip by several weeks in exchange for Hamas releasing five living and 10 dead hostages, according to reports on Thursday.
The reports on the new proposal drew concern from the families of the hostages, who said the deal, if agreed upon, would leave many of their loved ones in captivity for a “long and undetermined length of time.” Fifty-nine hostages are still held in Gaza, with 24 of them believing to be alive.
The existence and details of the new US outline were first reported by Axios, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
The proposal, which differs from a previous outline put forward by Witkoff, would extend the current ceasefire by several weeks, until the end of both Ramadan and Passover, in exchange for the release of additional hostages, according to the Axios report. At the same time, Israel would also be required to resume the flow of humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Hebrew media outlets reported later Thursday that the US proposal provides for five living and 10 dead hostages to be returned, and extending the ceasefire for a further 42-50 days.
Citing two unnamed sources, Axios reported that the extension, should all parties agree to implement it, would give the US additional time to negotiate a more concrete, long-term truce agreement.
Should a long-term ceasefire agreement be reached, the report said that Hamas would be required to hand over all remaining hostages, living and dead, on the last day of the temporary truce extension, before the concrete ceasefire came into effect.
Israel gave “a positive response” to Witkoff’s latest proposal, the Axios report said, while Qatar and Egypt were still awaiting Hamas’s response after delivering the details of the outline to the terror group on Wednesday night.
According to a Channel 12 report late Thursday, Israel has demanded that a larger number of living hostages be freed.
Hamas, for its part, has demanded that the US guarantee that there will be discussions on phase two of the current deal, which provides for the full withdrawal of the IDF and the end of the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to hold negotiations on the second phase despite the agreement’s stipulations.
Netanyahu will reportedly convene top aides and security chiefs on Saturday night for a “situational assessment” on the latest developments of the hostage talks in Doha, and if no breakthrough is achieved by then, the premier will bring his negotiating team home.
If the sides cannot reach an agreement based on the new Witkoff proposal, the Channel 12 report said that mediators were expected to push Israel and Hamas toward a smaller interim arrangement, under which a “solitary few” living hostages would be freed and the ceasefire maintained.
The purpose of the smaller arrangement would be to buy more time for negotiations and avoid the complete collapse of the talks and a return to fighting.
In the course of the extended ceasefire, discussions would take place on “final summations” — an apparent reference to the end of the war.
“If there is no progress in the next 48 hours, the Israeli delegation will return to Israel,” Channel 12 quoted a senior Israeli source as saying.
The network also said that Israel’s demand for Hamas leaders to go into exile is “off the agenda” given the “stubborn opposition” from Hamas’s leaders in Gaza, quoting sources in Israel’s negotiating team as saying the demand was not going to be raised as an option in the ongoing talks.
However, Netanyahu’s office firmly denied that claim, calling it “fake news,” saying Israel still wants Hamas’s Gaza leaders sent into exile while confirming that the prime minister is open to extending safe passage abroad for them.
“Fake news once again,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. “In contrast to the false report from Channel 12 this evening, the exile of senior Hamas officials has not been taken off the agenda.”
‘Serious concerns’
Following the flurry of reports, the families of the Gaza hostages expressed “serious concerns” about Witkoff’s proposal, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
“The reports about the outline for the return of just a few hostages raise serious concerns among the families of the hostages that their loved ones will be left in captivity for a long and undetermined length of time,” the forum said.
The forum demanded a “comprehensive and immediate agreement that will return all 59 hostages in one fell swoop and leave nobody behind.”
“Otherwise, the living hostages who remain in the tunnels will be sentenced to death, and we will not be able to locate and return the dead for burial,” it added.
MK Benny Gantz, who heads the opposition National Unity party, expressed similar concerns, saying that Netanyahu was either making “concessions” to Hamas or “stalling.”
“In the first hostage outline, we returned 10 living hostages per day; in the current outline, four per week, and now we are discussing a plan to return five live hostages per month,” he said.
“The conclusion is simple — either Netanyahu is making concessions, or Netanyahu is stalling,” Gantz wrote, adding that “Israel’s interest is to return all the hostages as quickly as possible.”
“What is happening now is that Netanyahu is allowing Hamas to rehabilitate instead of dismantling it, endangering the hostages instead of returning them, and preserving his coalition instead of national interests,” he concluded.
Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 59 hostages.
