CNN
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Hamas on Saturday said that it has responded to a ceasefire plan put forward by President Trump’s envoy on Gaza, repeating its call for an end to the war.
In a statement, Hamas said that its “proposal” to the mediators – Qatar and Egypt — “aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and ensure the flow of aid to our people and our families in the Gaza Strip.”
“As part of this agreement, ten living Israeli prisoners held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of eighteen bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,” the statement said.
It comes after a senior Hamas official told CNN earlier this week that the group had sent back a three-pronged counterproposal requesting US assurances that the negotiations over a permanent ceasefire will continue and the fighting will not resume after the pause; that humanitarian assistance be carried out through the United Nations; and that the IDF pull back to the positions that they held on March 2.
An Israeli official told CNN on Saturday that they saw the militant group’s latest response as having “effectively rejected the latest Witkoff proposal and put forward a new offer with its own conditions.”
The US-backed and Israel-approved proposal seen by CNN on Friday includes Hamas releasing 10 Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages in exchange for 125 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,111 Gazans detained since the war began.
Negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire would begin immediately on the first day of the 60-day truce, according to the US proposal. The terms of the agreement would also allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza “immediately” and be distributed “through agreed upon channels,” including the United Nations and the Red Crescent, according to the proposal.
But the draft agreement contained no intrinsic guarantee of a permanent end to the war, a key Hamas demand, nor assurances that the ceasefire will be extended as long as negotiations continue. Instead, it said that US President Donald Trump is “committed to working to ensure that good faith negotiations continue until a final agreement is reached.”
Hamas had initially signaled reluctance to accept the terms of the deal. Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said on Facebook Thursday that the framework did “not respond to any of our people’s demands” but that discussions were underway, nonetheless.
The back-and-forth between Israel and Hamas comes as famine conditions worsen in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s 11-week blockade of humanitarian aid has left the enclave’s population facing starvation. Though it was lifted last week, much of the little aid that has entered the strip since has been looted, and several people have been killed after chaos broke out near aid distribution sites, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Nearly 80 aid trucks traveling through southern and central Gaza were looted by desperate civilians on Saturday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said.
In a statement issued on X, the WFP said 77 trucks had crossed into Gaza loaded with flour. All of them “were stopped along the way, with food taken mainly by hungry people trying to feed their families.”
It added that “after 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving – and they are no longer willing to let food pass them by.”
This story has been updated with developments.
