Hamas response on ceasefire proposal expected within 24 hours, Donald Trump says
His comments came after Hamas leaders held talks on the final details of the proposal on Thursday, sources told The National. Hamas is expected to agree on a truce and the release of some hostages, but the group is seeking clarification about some issues, the sources said as discussions took place in Cairo.
Mr Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire agreement, during which the parties would work to end the conflict. When asked on Friday whether Hamas had agreed to the latest terms, he said: "We'll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours."
The main provisions in the proposed deal are a 60-day truce, during which Hamas will release 10 living hostages, as well as the remains of half of those who died in captivity. In return, about 1,200 Palestinians detained in Israel would be released, sources told The National.
The proposal also envisions negotiations between Israel and Hamas on ending the war and an Israeli withdrawal from the enclave.
The two sides are also reviewing the mechanics of the resumption and distribution of aid in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are facing hunger and an acute shortage of essential items.
Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has bitterly opposed any deal throughout the war, on Thursday called on far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to 'join forces' to block a 'reckless deal'. Mr Smotrich this week promised to oppose any deal that ended the fighting.
'We must not stop the war without victory,' Mr Ben-Gvir told Israel's public broadcaster. 'What do you think will happen if we stop the war now? That Hamas will hand out flowers?'
His comments came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington next week.
The Gaza war broke out in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage. The group is believed to still have about 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them thought to be alive.
The Hamas attack prompted a devastating assault by Israel that has so far killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Gaza have said. The war has displaced the majority of the enclave's estimated two million population, with many having been forced to flee more than once, and destroyed swathes of built-up areas.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US have been trying in vain since March to broker a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
12 minutes ago
- Gulf Today
'Big Beautiful Bill Act:' Trump signs tax and spending bill into law
US President Donald Trump signed into law a massive package of tax and spending cuts at the White House on Friday, staging an outdoor ceremony on the Fourth of July holiday that took on the air of a Trump political rally. With military jets flying overhead and hundreds of supporters in attendance, Trump signed the bill one day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the signature legislation of the president's second term. The bill, which will fund Trump's immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent, and is expected to knock millions of Americans off health insurance, was passed with a 218-214 vote after an emotional debate on the House floor. The US President described the law as a major achievement. Donald Trump shows his signature on the "Big Beautiful Bill Act" at the White House in Washington on Friday. WAM "I've never seen people so happy in our country because of that, because so many different groups of people are being taken care of: the military, civilians of all types, jobs of all types," Trump said at the ceremony, thanking House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune for leading the bill through the two houses of Congress. "So you have the biggest tax cut, the biggest spending cut, the largest border security investment in American history," Trump said. Trump scheduled the ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, replete with a flyover by stealth bombers and fighter jets like those that took part in the recent US strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. Hundreds of Trump supporters attended, including White House aides, members of Congress, and military families. After a speech that included boastful claims about the ascendance of America on his watch, Trump signed the bill, posed for pictures with Republican congressional leaders and members of his cabinet, and waded through the crowd of happy supporters. Donald Trump arrives with First Lady Melanie Trump to sign the "Big Beautiful Bill Act" at the White House in Washington. AFP The bill's passage amounts to a big win for Trump and his Republican allies, who have argued it will boost economic growth, while largely dismissing a nonpartisan analysis predicting it will add more than $3 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion debt. While some lawmakers in Trump's party expressed concerns over the bill's price tag and its hit to healthcare programmes, in the end just two of the House's 220 Republicans voted against it, joining all 212 Democrats in opposition. The tense standoff over the bill included a record-long floor speech by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke for eight hours and 46 minutes, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would strip low-income Americans of federally-backed health insurance and food aid benefits. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin predicted the law would cost Republicans votes in congressional elections in 2026. "Today, Donald Trump sealed the fate of the Republican Party, cementing them as the party for billionaires and special interests - not working families," Martin said in a statement. "This legislation will hang around the necks of the GOP for years to come. This was a full betrayal of the American people. Today, we are putting Republicans on notice: you will lose your majority." Reuters
The National
18 minutes ago
- The National
Best photos of July 5: Fourth of July celebrations to Syria's new emblem
A Syrian woman takes a picture of the new national emblem of Syria, depicting an eagle inspired by ancient motifs at Palmyra carrying 14 feathers symbolising the country's 14 governorates and surmounted by three stars from the national flag, during a drone show at Ummayad Square in Damascus. AFP
Middle East Eye
33 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
US consultancy firm involved in GHF aid scheme modelled plans to 'relocate' Palestinians
A consulting firm involved in the scandal-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation entered into a multimillion-dollar contract to develop the initiative and modelled a plan to "relocate" Palestinians from Gaza as part of its work, a Financial Times investigation has revealed. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) helped design and run the US and Israeli-backed scheme which aimed to supplant United Nations-led aid coordination mechanisms in Gaza. The chaotic roll out of the programme has seen 600 Palestinians killed and another 4,000 wounded by Israeli forces while attempting to access aid. The firm has disavowed its involvement in the project, claiming in a statement in June that it had initially provided "pro bono support" for the project, but two senior partners that led the work "failed to disclose" its full nature and had subsequently carried out "unauthorised work" on the project. It said that the partners have since been fired and an investigation has been launched into the firm's involvement in the scheme. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters But according to sources familiar with the project who spoke to the Financial Times, the BCG were more enmeshed with the scheme than the firm has publicly acknowledged, with the company contracted to perform $4m worth of work over a period of seven months. Over a dozen BCG staff worked directly on the project, dubbed "Aurora", between October and late May. Senior figures at the firm were reported to have discussed the initiative, but the BCG said they were misled about the scope and nature of the work by the partners helming the project. 'My journey to get aid in Gaza was like Squid Game' Read More » "The lead partner was categorically told no, and he violated this directive. We disavow this work," the BCG said. The work included financial modelling for the post-war reconstruction of Gaza, commissioned by Israeli backers, with one scenario envisioning the "voluntary relocation" of Palestinians from the enclave. This would have involved paying out "relocation packages" to 500,000 people worth $9,000 per person to induce people to leave the territory. The model assumed a quarter of Palestinians would opt to leave Gaza, with three-quarters of them unlikely to return. It estimated the cost of forced expulsion of Palestinians to be $23,000 cheaper, per Palestinian, than the costs of providing support to them in Gaza during reconstruction. According to BCG, this side of the operation was conducted without the knowledge of senior management and against their instructions. Involvement in security operations The revelations also raise questions about BCG's involvement in developing the security aspect of the initiative. According to sources familiar with the early stages of BCG's work on the initiative, the firm was initially contracted by Washington-based security contractor Orbis to develop a feasibility study for a new aid operation on behalf of the Tachlith Institute, an Israeli think tank. BCG was chosen for the project because of its connections with Phil Reilly, a 29-year veteran of the CIA who worked at Orbis. He was a senior adviser to BCG's defence practice where the two fired partners, Matt Schlueter and Ryan Ordway, worked. Middle East Eye previously reported that Reilly served as a senior adviser at BCG for eight years, and began discussing Gaza aid with Israeli civilians while still in his advisory role in early 2024. The BCG did not answer MEE's questions regarding its involvement in the security operations to support GHF, what role it had played with the foundation and who had asked the firm to get involved initially. Reilly dropped his advisory role with BCG and went on to found Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), a private military company which became the main security provider for the GHF. According to the report, half a dozen staff shifted to "more detailed business planning" for the SRS and GHF. This work was helmed by the US defence practice, while the initial pro-bono phase was billed to BCG's social impact practice helmed by Rich Hutchinson. Ex-CIA officer running Gaza aid security advised Boston Consulting Group Read More » By January, the BCG was contracted by McNally Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm which owns Orbis, to plan GHF's ground operations from Tel Aviv. The SRS signed an initial contract with the group worth over $1m to cover eight weeks of work to develop SRS's operations in Gaza, with travel approvals given by officials in BGC's risk management operation. The group told the Financial Times that it was "pleased to have supported the establishment of SRS as an important step toward meeting the full scope of the humanitarian need in Gaza". Funding sources for both GHF and SRS remain unclear. Both are registered in US tax havens, with scant details available in public records. A source previously told the Financial Times that the GHF had been pledged $100m from a country they refused to name. Reuters reported on Friday that UBS and Goldman Sachs declined to open bank accounts for the GHF, with the foundation's lack of transparency over its funding cited as being one of the main stumbling blocks in the discussions with the banks. A GHF spokesperson said it has "spoken about initial funding from Europe, but we don't disclose donors for their privacy". GHF's scheme has seen 400 aid distribution points across the enclave replaced by four militarised distribution sites, where millions are forced to risk death in the hope of receiving aid. Israeli troops have admitted to deliberately shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid in the Gaza Strip, following direct orders from their superiors.
