Hamas has rejected, and Israel has accepted, the terms proposed by President Donald Trump for ending the war in Gaza with the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, according to reports in the Israeli media.
On Sunday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff conveyed a final proposal to Hamas for the full release of hostages, and for the organization to disarm and abandon control of Gaza.
President Trump posted on Truth Social about it, saying that Israel had accepted the compromise, and that Hamas had one last chance to do so.
On Monday, Hamas released a statement in which it seemed, at least in English, to accept the terms, but in which it actually rejected them.
Israeli journalist Lahav Harkov said that Hamas’s rejection had been firm, and was being ignored in English-language media:
The sticking points, apparently, are that Hamas refuses to disarm or to commit to leaving power. It wants to retain its weapons, and while it agrees to let a “committee” run Gaza, it would likely dominate such a group.
Hamas also apparently refused to release the hostages up front, rejected U.S. assurances that the Americans would prevent Israel from attacking it after the hostages had been freed.
On Tuesday, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz confirmed that Israel had accepted Trump’s proposal and was ready to end the war “tomorrow.” He said there were two conditions: Hamas had to release the hostages, and had to disarm.
He also warned that if Hamas did not release the hostages right away, Gaza City would be destroyed.
Updatee: The IDF has dubbed its operation in Doha “Summit of Fire.”
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.
On Tuesday, Israeli defen
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