Israel yet to comment on Trump’s 60-day proposal
There hasn’t been any sort of official confirmation from the Israelis just yet, because it is around 3am local time there.
It is important to note that the Israelis had previously accepted a 60-day proposal that was brought forth by the Americans back in March.
It was presented by the American envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who said that this was a 60-day proposal only, but it had guarantees for Israel to return to the fighting, and that was the main reason why Hamas decided not to accept that proposal.
This has been a huge sticking point throughout these negotiations.
Reports within Israeli media indicated tonight that for the first time in more than 20 months, Benjamin Netanyahu had signalled a willingness to negotiate an end to the war.
Netanyahu, up until this point, has said that Israel has a lot of different goals and that the war on Gaza will only end when they achieve “total victory”.
Now what the US president is saying is that Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise this 60-day ceasefire. He also said that mediators are going to be giving this final draft to Hamas.
Israel has not sent the negotiating team to the Qatari capital or the Egyptian capital for some time, but has been doing this sort of shuttle diplomacy with the Americans to try and finalise something.
And even though there is momentum towards this sort of deal, the Israelis still have not confirmed anything on their end.
Israel threatens to turn Gaza ‘into dust’ if Hamas fails to agree a truce: Report
Israeli officials have warned that the country’s military will escalate its operations in Gaza if negotiations on a ceasefire and captive exchange deal do not advance soon, according to the US-based Axios news outlet.
Israel on Monday ordered civilians in additional areas of Gaza City to evacuate south, signalling preparations for a potential expansion of the army’s ground offensive.
“We’ll do to Gaza City and the central camps what we did to Rafah. Everything will turn to dust,” the outlet quoted a senior Israeli official as saying. “It’s not our preferred option, but if there’s no movement toward a hostage deal, we won’t have any other choice.”
The report comes as Trump said Israel had agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day truce and urged Hamas to accept the deal. There has been no official word from Israel or Hamas yet.
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What are the sticking points in Israel-Hamas truce talks?
We’ve been reporting on a new push by the US for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The Axios news website is reporting that Trump’s announcement came after talks between his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer at the White House. It said the two discussed “an updated ceasefire and hostage proposal put forward by Qatar”.
There has been no comment from Doha yet.
Here’s a reminder of the hurdles in previous rounds of talks:
- Permanent ceasefire: Hamas has called for guarantees for any temporary truce to lead to an end to Israel’s war and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel, however, has refused to provide such a commitment. It abandoned the three-phase ceasefire deal agreed to in January and resumed bombarding Gaza after rejecting negotiations on ending the war.
- Disarming of Hamas: Israel wants Hamas to lay down arms, cede control of Gaza and exile its leaders out of the Strip, but the Palestinian group has previously called this a “red line”, saying it will not disarm as long as Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory continues.
During the last round of indirect talks in June, Israeli media reported that the US proposed a 60-day ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the release of 10 living Israeli captives and the bodies of 18 others, in exchange for 1,100 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The US proposal said Israeli forces would pull back from Gaza based on maps to be agreed upon, and that negotiations would also begin on a permanent ceasefire, the release of the remaining captives and Israeli “redeployment and withdrawals”.
Hamas issued a counterproposal, asking for the negotiations on a permanent ceasefire to begin on day one of the truce, and for the Trump administration to guarantee the talks to reach a final settlement to the war.
