Hamas said on Thursday it was studying a Gaza ceasefire proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel announced it had accepted, as starvation stalks the enclave and Israel ramps up its air strikes.
“The leadership of the Hamas movement has received Witkoff’s new proposal from the mediators and is currently studying it responsibly, in a manner that serves the interests of our people, provides relief, and achieves a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said.
Witkoff sounded an optimistic note speaking at the White House on Wednesday, saying, “I have some very good feelings about getting to… a temporary ceasefire and a long-term, peaceful resolution of that conflict.”
US President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a new ceasefire proposal from Witkoff, but added that Hamas had not yet accepted.
However, reports that Israel and Hamas were nearing an agreement have occurred regularly throughout the 18 months of war, only to wither a few days later.
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Hamas and Israel reached a brief three-stage ceasefire in January, but the deal collapsed in March after Israel took back several of its captives and resumed bombing Gaza, walking away from the deal before talks with Hamas on a permanent end to the war could start.
While the Trump administration has broken with Israel on bombing the Houthis, negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, and lifting sanctions on Syria, it has given Israel full backing to wage war on Gaza.
What we know about Witkoff’s proposal
According to Axios, the latest Witkoff proposal is similar to the one Israel broke in March.
It calls for the release of captives in return for 60 days of no fighting.
The deal would set a timeline for Hamas and Israel to begin negotiating a permanent end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Several factors have changed since then, but it’s unclear how they might impact the talks.
In May, the Trump administration began to rely on a new intermediary with Hamas, Palestinian-American businessman Bishara Bahbah.
Bishara Bahbah, new US intermediary to Hamas
The national chairman for Arab Americans for Trump established a backchannel for Hamas directly to the Trump administration that led to the release of US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander from captivity earlier this month.
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Despite the new diplomatic shake-up, the main roadblock to a deal has not changed.
Hamas wants a guarantee that, in return for returning the 20 captives believed to be alive, Israel will agree to a permanent end to the war.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that Netanyahu was prepared to move forward with a temporary truce.
Netanyahu has regularly insisted on the right to resume fighting and has pledged to totally disarm and eliminate Hamas.
Speaking in May, Netanyahu said for the first time that one of his conditions for ending the war was the right to enact a plan floated earlier this year by Trump, which called for the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
Will Israel agree to a permanent ceasefire?
Israel did withdraw from some points in Gaza in January and February, but it has established the Netzarim Corridor to deploy troops from east to west of Gaza quickly.
Hamas is unlikely to forget that Israel quickly reoccupied the enclave in March with little public pressure not to from the US, or Egypt and Qatar, the two Arab mediators.
Israel’s military said on Monday it wants to control 75 percent of Gaza and force roughly two million Palestinians there into a narrow zone in the south near the Egyptian border.
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There was some confusion on Monday after media reports said that Hamas had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire proposed by Witkoff, only for Israel to deny the offer was on the table.
Talks are ongoing as Gaza descends into anarchy and starvation. Israel has been blockading the entry of all food, water, and medicine into the enclave until recently.
The US and Israel established a controversial organisation in May dubbed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute aid. Its aid centre in Rafah, staffed by American mercenaries, was overrun with thousands of starving Palestinians.
The Israeli military opened fire on the crowd, and images on social media showed Palestinians boxed into narrow fences to obtain aid.
The foundation has been slammed by the UN and other aid groups for militarising aid. On Wednesday, four Palestinians died storming a UN warehouse in search of food.
At least 44 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza on Thursday. The total death toll since the war began in October 2023 has surpassed 54,000.
