Hamas reportedly offered to accept a ceasefire proposal first floated by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff three months ago that would see half of the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages released for a 60-day truce.
As Breitbart News reported in May, the Palestinian terrorist group had initially rejected Witkoff’s proposal, which had been too ambitious even for some Israelis. The details:
Witkoff’s ceasefire proposal calls for the release of 10 living hostages — roughly half of those remaining — as well as the bodies of 18 dead Israeli hostages, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, 125 convicted Palestinian terrorists serving life sentences, 1,111 Gaza residents detained during the present conflict, and the resumption of humanitarian aid through the United Nations, i.e. not the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Hamas appeared to accept a similar proposal by Egyptian and Qatari mediators on Monday, as Israel prepared to enter Gaza City — the last Hamas stronghold — and as President Donald Trump predicted on Truth Social that Hamas would be destroyed.
The Times of Israel reported:
Hamas on Monday informed mediators that it accepted the ceasefire-hostage release deal proposal that was submitted to the group a day earlier, which sources said involves a 60-day pause and the release of 10 living captives, as mediators scramble to find an agreement before Israel launches its planned mission to conquer Gaza City.
…
The proposal agreed to on Monday by Hamas would see the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian security prisoners during a 60-day truce, the diplomat said, adding that the deal will also see the release of bodies of slain hostages.
Israel has not yet responded to the new (old) proposal, which differs only in a few particulars from Witkoff’s original idea, other than to acknowledge Hamas’s position and to say that Hamas is under military pressure.
Given the large protests in Israel on Sunday, consisting of hundreds of thousands of people demanding a ceasefire and hostage deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be under pressure to agree, even if Israel might have to compromise on destroying Hamas entirely, and even if it would have to accept another “partial” hostage deal that left some living Israelis in the terrorists’ hands.
Israel had said in recent weeks that it would only accept proposals to release all of the hostages at once, and to end the war with Hamas’s defeat.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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