Above photo: AP.
Netanyahu said that ending the war on Gaza is conditional on Hamas’s complete surrender and disarmament.
A senior Hamas official said late on 29 March that the resistance movement has accepted a new Egyptian proposal to resume the truce in the Gaza Strip, coming as Israel has rejected Cairo’s plan and put forward its own counteroffer.
“Hamas recently received a new proposal from the Qatari and Egyptian mediators and responded positively. The movement emphasized it is not seeking new demands, only the implementation of what was already signed and guaranteed,” said the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, during a speech on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.
“Despite Israeli stalling and Benjamin Netanyahu’s deliberate sabotage to prolong the war, Hamas demonstrated responsibility, flexibility, and seriousness, which led to the 19 January 2025 agreement. Hamas upheld its commitments while Israel violated the deal and resumed the war more brutally than before,” the official asserted.
He added that Hamas’s key objectives are a permanent end to the war, achieving Palestinian national unity, and working with all factions to establish a Palestinian state.
Hayya also reiterated Hamas’s agreement to an Egyptian proposal from last year regarding the formation of a Community Support Committee led by Palestinian factions, which would assume management of post-war Gaza. Earlier in the week, Hamas signaled that it would be willing to hand over governance to such a committee.
Yet Hayya declared that the resistance’s weapons are a “red line, tied directly to the occupation’s existence and the need to protect the Palestinian state,” rejecting any surrender of Gaza to Israeli control.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is prepared to discuss the “final stage” of the war, conditional on Hamas’s “surrender and disarmament,” as well as the exile of its leaders.
“We are conducting negotiations under fire, and that’s why they are also effective. Suddenly we see cracks.” Netanyahu also said Israel is working to implement US President Donald Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, calling it a “voluntary migration plan.”
Tel Aviv has repeatedly insisted on a complete disarmament of Hamas, a deviation from the initial ceasefire deal signed in January.
The new Egyptian proposal stipulates the release of five living Israeli captives from Gaza, among them US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander, as well as the bodies of a number of dead captives and a 50-day cessation of hostilities.
A Haaretz report citing a senior Israeli official said Alexander’s release will “take American pressure off Netanyahu’s back in everything related to the release of the hostages or progress to the day after [the war in Gaza],” and is likely to lead Trump to lose interest in the issue. Washington had been trying to secure Alexander’s release in separate talks with Hamas earlier this month.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Saturday that Israel received the Egyptian proposal and has made a counteroffer “in full coordination with the US.” According to reports, Tel Aviv is insisting that 10 or 11 captives be released for the ceasefire agreement to resume.
Israel’s Channel 14 said Hamas’s response to the Israeli proposal will be a “turning point” that can either lead to another truce agreement or continued escalation.
Over 830 Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of women and children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel shattered the ceasefire deal and resumed its war on the strip on 18 March.
Israeli ground troops have reinvaded the strip as part of the new offensive, and officials have threatened the illegal seizure of territory in Gaza if captives are not released.
WATCH | Using rudimentary equipment, Civil Defense crews in Gaza work hours to rescue a young Palestinian girl that was trapped under the rubble of her own home after Israeli warplanes bombed it. pic.twitter.com/oe0wbYuTsI
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) March 29, 2025