Hamas received a new proposal in Cairo on Monday from Egyptian and Qatari mediators for a 60-day truce in the war on Gaza. The plan, based on a revised version of the US-backed Witkoff initiative, calls for the release of two groups of Israeli captives, according to a Palestinian source familiar with ceasefire talks.
Palestinian faction leaders informed Hamas of their approval of the plan. Hamas, in turn, delayed announcing its final position until consulting its military leadership in Gaza, promising to deliver its response to the mediators in the coming hours, according to a source who attended the negotiations.
The source explained that the new proposal builds on the Witkoff plan as a basis. Amendments introduced by the mediators aim to bring the disparate positions closer.
The offer, according to the source, provides for the release of 10 Israeli captives alive, along with half the number of bodies held by resistance groups. In return, Israel would release more Palestinians from its prisons.
The proposal also requires the Israeli occupation army to withdraw from the Morag axis in the south of the Strip, and from Rafah up to the buffer zone, a demand Hamas has held onto in negotiations.
The earlier Witkoff initiative required Hamas to release 28 Israeli captives — 10 alive and 18 dead — over 60 days. It also allowed urgent humanitarian aid to enter Gaza under UN and Red Crescent supervision, and required a gradual withdrawal of occupation forces beginning after the release of the first group of captives.
On the 10th day of the proposed truce, Hamas was to provide information on the remaining captives. In return, Israel would supply data on more than 2,000 Palestinian detainees held under administrative detention since the start of the war, and commit to release them under the final agreement.
The source stressed the current proposal remains “partial”, and does not include broader issues such as the question of resistance arms or the fate of its leaders. Mediators, the source added, prioritize ending the massacres in the Strip ahead of wider “day after” discussions.
Hamas had earlier responded to Witkoff's proposal by demanding the Rafah crossing be permanently opened from the Palestinian side for aid delivery. It also required Israeli forces to withdraw according to terms different from Israel’s vision. This dispute led the US and Israeli delegations to withdraw from the negotiations.
In parallel, Palestinian factions held a meeting in New Alamein attended by Husam Badran, head of Hamas’s national relations office. The gathering was part of Egyptian efforts to unify the internal Palestinian stance in the face of mounting risks to the Palestinian cause, a Hamas source said.
Badran denied there were disagreements among the factions, contrary to reports in Israeli media. He affirmed that Hamas and other resistance factions are aligned on the main lines of the initiative.
He explained that Hamas’s insistence on withdrawal from Morag and Rafah is meant to block attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians in Gaza. It is also intended to counter Israeli plans to redraw control in southern Gaza, including delegating local groups to administer targeted shelter areas, he told Al Manassa.
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation army announced it would start on Sunday supplying tents and shelter equipment to Palestinians in Gaza to move them from combat areas to the south “for their safety.” Hamas rejected the move, calling it “a new wave of genocidal brutality and criminal displacement against hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced people in the Strip.”
On March 18, Israel refused to implement the second phase of a ceasefire agreed to in January that was meant to continue until the end of Israel’s assault on Gaza. It then resumed its war on the Strip. Mediators have since been unable to secure another truce or a comprehensive deal to compel Israel to end the war, despite ongoing negotiations.
