U.S., Israel waiting for Hamas to respond to ceasefire proposal for Gaza, White House says
The United States and Israel are waiting for Hamas to respond to a 60-day Gaza ceasefire proposal, the White House said Thursday.
Israel signed off on a proposal that special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump submitted, and it's been sent to Hamas, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
During the proposed 60-day ceasefire, a draft of the deal obtained by CBS News indicated that Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 dead hostages. Israel would release 125 "life sentence" prisoners and 1,111 Palestinian detainees as part of the deal, as well as 180 deceased Palestinians.
Five living hostages and nine deceased from the "list of 58" remaining hostages would be released on the first day of the agreement, while a second group would be released on the seventh day, according to the document.
According to the document, humanitarian aid will be sent into Gaza immediately once Hamas agrees to the deal, and it will be distributed through "agreed upon channels that will include the United Nations and Red Crescent."
"I can confirm that special envoy Witkoff and the president submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed and supported," Leavitt said Thursday. "Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas. I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home."
Leavitt said Hamas hasn't accepted the deal, to her knowledge, but if there is a deal, the public will hear so directly from her, Witkoff or the president himself.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said in a statement Thursday that the proposal "fails to meet any of our people's demands, foremost among them an end to the war and famine," but the "movement's leadership is studying the response with full national responsibility, in light of the genocide our people are facing."
A senior Hamas figure closely involved in negotiations told CBS News they are studying the proposal and don't feel there are a lot of options. Hamas is asking the U.S. for clear guarantees that Israel is not going to attack Gaza within the 60 days of the ceasefire, the senior Hamas figure said.
The proposal obtained by CBS News outlines that all Israeli offensive military activities in Gaza will cease once the deal is agreed upon, and that during the 60 days, there will be a cessation of aerial movement in the Gaza Strip for 10 hours daily, or 12 hours daily when the exchange of hostages and prisoners take place.
Negotiations for a permanent ceasefire would begin on the first day of the agreement and would include discussing the exchange of the remaining hostages, issues relating to redeployment and withdrawals of Israeli forces, and long-term security within Gaza.
President Trump, who on Friday told reporters in the Oval Office that they are "very close to an agreement on Gaza," will personally announce the ceasefire agreement, the proposal says.
A source familiar with the U.S. outreach to Hamas tells CBS News that a deal is close, and once a response is received, it will be transmitted directly to Mr. Trump and Witkoff.
Mr. Trump has expressed optimism recently that there would be a deal. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, roughly one-third of whom are believed to still be alive, out of about 250 who were taken during the group's terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The rest have either been released during earlier pauses in fighting or have been confirmed dead.
An earlier two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended in March after the two sides failed to agree on terms for extending it, and Israel resumed strikes on the Gaza Strip. During that temporary truce, dozens of hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for Israel freeing some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a temporary ceasefire deal to release more hostages, but "there will be no way we will stop the war" until Hamas is defeated.
Some 1,200 people were killed in Hamas' 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, mostly civilians. Since then, about 54,000 people have been killed in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are women and children, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip resumed earlier this month after a more than two-month blockade. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial new U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group, began distributing food this week.
