The US special envoy Steve Witkoff has reacted with fury after Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, saying response was “totally unacceptable and only takes us backward.”
According to Saudi broadcaster Al Hadath, Palestinian factions in Gaza also urged Hamas to accept the proposal, viewing it as an opportunity to halt the war and alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
One faction reportedly said: "This proposal could stop the hunger and displacement."
Israel has signed off on a deal under which Hamas would hand over ten living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in two phases, in exchange for increased aid, a 60-day ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Witkoff said: “Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.
“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days, in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families, and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.”
The Witkoff proposal stipulated that the parties would have to reach an agreement on the parameters of Israel’s partial withdrawal from Gaza during the truce. It also provided for further negotiations during the truce on a potential settlement to end the war.
Hamas’s amended counter-proposal included the demand that the hostage release process be spread out throughout the truce, rather than in two batches on the first and seventh day, as the US offer envisioned.
The terror group also sought an amendment to the text that would make it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire are not completed by the end of the truce.
Other counterpoints put forward by Hamas were for humanitarian assistance to be delivered through the United Nations channels and for the IDF to pull back to the positions they held on March 2 this year, before Israel re-launched its military operations.
The World Food Programme said on Saturday that 77 trucks carrying aid, mostly flour, were stopped by hungry Gazans who took the food before the trucks could reach their destination. The nearly three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza has pushed the population to a point that is close to starvation.
An Israeli official reportedly said that Hamas had also requested a ceasefire lasting up to seven years, adding that that Jerusalem was treating Hamas’s response to the proposal as an “effective rejection”.
In response to the impasse, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday “Israel will continue its efforts to return our hostages and defeat Hamas.”
In a statement Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hamas had a choice: accept the Witkoff proposal or face destruction.
“The [Israel Defence Forces] continues its operations in Gaza with full force, striking and dismantling Hamas strongholds, while evacuating the local population from every combat zone and attacking the area from the air, land and sea on an unprecedented scale,” the statement read.
“Our foremost commitment is to the protection of our brave soldiers in regular and reserve duty above all other considerations. After eliminating the terrorists and clearing the area, the IDF removes every threat following the Rafah model — and remains to maintain control of the location.
“In this way, we will achieve the objectives of the war: the release of all hostages and the defeat and destruction of Hamas.”
The “Rafah model” was a reference to the reported large-scale flattening of buildings and infrastructure in the southernmost area of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces, due to concerns regarding terrorist threats such as hidden explosive devices. The model also envisions an indefinite deployment of IDF troops in the area to prevent Hamas from re-establishing itself.
The IDF confirmed last weekend that it had eliminated Mohammed Sinwar, the head of the terrorist organisation’s “military wing”, in a May 13 strike on a Hamas command centre under the European Hospital in Al-Fukhari in southern Gaza.
Mohammad Sabaneh, the commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, and Mahdi Quara, the commander of Hamas’s South Khan Yunis Battalion, were also eliminated in the strike, according to the military.
Sabaneh was “one of the planners and executors of the brutal Oct. 7 massacre and oversaw the captivity of many hostages in southern Gaza,” while Quara led the terror group’s Nukhba Force before being promoted to commander of the South Khan Yunis Battalion, the IDF said.
Multiple air force jets were involved in the strike employing bunker-busting munitions to penetrate the Hamas compound beneath the hospital.
