Hamas has said it has broadly accepted a proposal to free dozens of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a temporary ceasefire in its seven-month war with Israel in Gaza.
According to a statement on Hamas’ Telegram channel, Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian militant group’s Doha-based political leader, told Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief of “the Hamas movement’s approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire”.
Hamas did not announce the details of the deal it has agreed to, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has yet to officially respond, leaving it unclear whether the proposed terms will enable fighting in Gaza to stop and a hostage-for-prisoner swap to take place.
Netanyahu’s office said “although the Hamas proposal is far from Israel’s necessary requirements”, Israel would dispatch mediators “to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel”.
With Israel preparing a military offensive in Rafah, a border town at Gaza’s southern tip that it considers Hamas’ last stronghold, Netanyahu’s office also said the war cabinet had voted to “continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war”.
The Israeli military said it was carrying out targeted air strikes in Rafah.
A diplomat briefed on the talks said the proposal Hamas had accepted was broadly similar to the one put forward by international mediators about two weeks ago.
The proposal Hamas has been studying and responded to included calls for an initial six-week pause in the war during which the group would release 33 hostages, including women, children, the elderly and wounded.
This would be followed by what mediators hope would be an extended ceasefire — described as “restoring a sustainable calm” — during which the remaining hostages would be freed.
Israel would release Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, allow Gazans to return to their homes in the enclave’s north and enable a surge of humanitarian aid.
Israeli officials say Hamas is holding 132 hostages, and believe 37 of them to be dead.
“Hamas has called Netanyahu’s bluff, and put the ball in his court,” the diplomat said.
Washington is also reviewing Hamas’s response to the proposal and discussing it with partners in the region, said John Kirby, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council.
“We want to get these hostages out, we want to get a ceasefire in place for six weeks, we want to increase humanitarian assistance,” Kirby said.
Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas leader in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the proposal it had accepted included an assurance that in “its second phase, [there will be a] direct announcement of a permanent cessation of military and hostile operations”.
“We made concessions so the door can be opened to stop this crazy war and for there to be a real prisoner exchange,” he said in televised remarks.
The announcement by Hamas came hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of eastern parts of Rafah, which has become the last refuge for more than 1mn Palestinians who have fled the war in other parts of the enclave.
Netanyahu’s office said over the weekend that the Israeli military would “enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there — whether or not there will be a temporary pause for the release of our hostages”.
His far-right coalition ally, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on X that Israel should reject Hamas’ latest move.
“Hamas’ tricks and games have only one answer: an immediate order to occupy Rafah, increasing military pressure, and continuing the complete pounding of Hamas, until its full defeat,” he added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “We are pleased that Hamas has agreed to the ceasefire after our calls. Now Israel should take the same step.
“I call on all western actors to put pressure on the Israeli administration,” he added.
Egypt, Qatar and the US have been mediating between Israel and Hamas for a second round of hostage-for-prisoner swaps, following one in November. That involved more than 100 captives in Gaza freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The talks had been stalled for months as Hamas demanded that any agreement end with a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Netanyahu, under pressure from far-right members of his ruling coalition, has repeatedly rejected Hamas’ demands.
Hamas seized about 250 people during its October 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people, say Palestinian health officials.
Families of Israeli hostages, who were protesting on a central Tel Aviv highway in support of an agreement between Israel and Hamas, told reporters that they were cautiously optimistic of a genuine breakthrough.
“Hamas’ announcement must pave the way for the return of the 132 hostages held captive by Hamas for the past seven months,” said the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, a group representing families of some Israeli hostages.
Palestinians in Rafah celebrated, according to images on social media, hours after panic gripped the town when the Israeli military on Monday ordered the evacuation of at least 100,000 residents, and signalled an imminent military operation.
The move by Hamas comes after a flurry of diplomacy, during which CIA director Bill Burns travelled to Cairo and then Qatar where he has been holding talks with Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani. Qatar hosts Hamas’ political office.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
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