US: We’re waiting for Hamas’s formal reply
A new hostage deal proposal is on the table, official response may take days
At the six-month mark on Sunday of Israel’s longest war since 1948, the country – taking stock of gains and losses since October 7 – heard the news that the IDF pulled out its last division from Khan Yunis, leaving only a brigade and scattered commando units inside the Gaza Strip.
The news was broadcast as part of one of the day’s regular hourly news bulletins, not during a specially-called press conference or video statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that one may have expected given the drama of the announcement.
Further, there was no build-up to it; no signal that it was about to happen.
One minute the ground maneuver in Khan Yunis was still ongoing – four soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city on Saturday – the next it was over.
One brigade – the Nahal Brigade – was left of the five and a half divisions, between 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers, that were inside Gaza at the peak of the fighting in December. The Nahal Brigade is patrolling the road bisecting the strip from east to west to keep Gazans pushed south at the beginning of the war from returning to the northern part of the coastal strip.
“Is the war over?” many asked on Sunday, while others – cognizant of the heightened tension in the north – asked instead: “Is it over in Gaza?”
After months of saying that Israel would not stop fighting in Gaza until Hamas was defeated and the hostages were released, was this sudden announcement the result of US President Joe Biden’s angry call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, since the hostages were not returned
American and Israeli negotiators are waiting for a response from Hamas to the latest proposal on the table for a hostage deal, US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Monday.
“Where we are now is that a proposal has been presented to Hamas and we’re waiting on Hamas’s response,” Kirby said.
“A response from Hamas to any particular proposal one way or another can often take a matter of days just because of the nature of communications with them and with [Hamas Gaza leader Yahya] Sinwar,” Kirby stated.
He spoke as Cairo hosted indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, which included CIA Director William Burns, as well as delegations from the two mediating countries Egypt and Qatar.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is scheduled to meet with families of the hostages late Monday, Kirby added.
The Cairo talks were serious, he stressed, and could hopefully lead to a six-week pause in the war.
“We’re taking this very, very seriously. And we what we want to do is come to closure on a hostage deal as soon as possible because again, with that hostage deal comes a ceasefire of hopefully around six weeks,” Kirby stated.
Sources told the Egyptian state-run Al-Qahera News said that delegations left Cairo and consultations were expected to continue within 48 hours. The security cabinet is expected to meet on Tuesday night to discuss the hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a short Hebrew language video in which he said, “I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo.
“We are working all the time to achieve our goals, primarily the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” he stated.
In an unusual statement, the Prime Minister’s Office also discussed the movements of Brig.-Gen. (Res) Gal Hirsch, explaining that he had met with the special US presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens.
They discussed US efforts to return the hostages, as well as American assistance toward achieving this goal, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz visited Italy on Monday with a delegation of relatives of some of the hostages. Those relatives were able to have an audience with Pope Francis.
According to a report in London-based Al Araby Al Jadid, the deal, proposed by the US, would include the return of 6,000 Palestinians to the northern part of Gaza on a daily basis during a sixweek period as well as the release of 40 of the hostages.
Hamas has insisted that any deal must include a permanent ceasefire, but according to Al Araby, the pause to the war at this phase would not be permanent.
In a conversation with newly recruited soldiers to the armored and engineering corps, Defense Minister Yoav Galant [Likud] said that the IDF had proved itself in the battle against Hamas and could now afford to be flexible to make a deal for the
return of the hostages.
“We have the highest obligation to return our hostages. The operational conditions created by IDF, and the position of strength from which we come into this campaign, allow us flexibility and freedom of action,” Gallant stated.
He stressed that Israel would have to make difficult decisions, that is “ready to pay a price” to ensure the return of the hostages, and that after that the IDF would resume.
Despite the cautious optimism in Israel, a Hamas official said Monday that no progress was made at the Cairo talks.
“There is no change in the position of the occupation [Israel] and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” said the Hamas official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
“There is no progress yet,” he said.
Two Egyptian security sources and state-run Al-Qahera News said that some progress had been made. They said that both sides made concessions that could help pave the way for a deal for a truce, which – as proposed during previous talks – would be staggered over three stages, with the release of any of the remaining 133 hostages and a long-term ceasefire addressed in the second stage.
The concessions relate to hostages and Hamas’s demand for the return of displaced residents to the north, they said. Mediators suggested the return could be monitored by an Arab force in the presence of Israeli security deployments that would later be pulled back, they added.
A Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts told Reuters that deadlock continued over Israel’s refusal to end the war, withdraw its forces from Gaza, allow all civilians to return to their homes, and lift restrictions on the entry of goods used to reconstruct the enclave.
These steps took precedence over Israel’s prime demand for a release of hostages, the official said on condition of anonymity. It’s also expected that as part of the deal, Israel would release Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in its jails.
“Regarding the exchange of prisoners, Hamas was and is willing to be more flexible, but there is no flexibility over our... main demands,” the official told Reuters.
Asked about the talks by reporters on Monday, Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman would not go into detail, saying only: “The most important thing is that the right people are in the right place at the right time to discuss a way in which the 133 Israeli hostages can be released.”
In Washington, opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) discussed the hostages in meetings held with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sullivan.
“It is a difficult deal. This is a deal we might not like, but it’s doable and therefore needs to be made,” Lapid said. National Security Minister Itamar BenGvir (Otzma Yehudit) has already threatened to bolt the government over the deal.
Lapid said that his party would support the agreement from the opposition.
Reuters contributed to this
Lapid pointed out that his party, Yesh Atid, has 24 seats in the Knesset, far more than the 14 seats of both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich combined.
Netanyahu in a video statement on Monday evening said that the invasion into Rafah would happen, and that “a date has been set.”
On Monday, Ben-Gvir announced that he had decided on the next police chief, current deputy chief of police Avshalom Peled, who will replace Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov “Kobi” Shabtai in July. However, according to a coalition agreement between the Likud and Gantz’s National Unity Party, the latter has veto power over any major appointments, including the police chief, and Ben-Gvir’s decision was not approved by Gantz.
National Unity responded that “appointing a permanent police chief is important. We do not know the deputy chief and will not address the person himself. The request to appoint him did not arrive on our doorstep. The agreement that enabled the formation of the government requires minister Gantz’s agreement to the appointment of a police chief – and it is expected of the prime minister that this is