Hamas agrees to release five living hostages in ceasefire proposal as Israeli attacks continue
29 March 2025, 23:24
Hamas said it has accepted a new Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar, but Israel said it has made a counter-proposal in "full coordination" with the third mediator, the United States.
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Egypt, earlier this week, made a proposal to get the ceasefire back on track, after Israel unexpectedly broke the agreement and resumed its bombing campaign just over ten days ago.
It was not immediately clear whether the proposal changed before Khalil al-Hayyah, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, announced it had been accepted by the group.
“Two days ago, we received a proposal from the mediators in Egypt and Qatar. We dealt with it positively and accepted it,” Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised speech.
“We hope that the [Israeli] occupation will not undermine [it],” said Hayya, who leads the Hamas negotiating team in indirect talks through mediators, aiming to secure a ceasefire .
Israel instead has made a counter-proposal – Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after “a series of consultations pursuant to the proposal that was received from the mediators, Israel conveyed a counter-proposal in full coordination with the US’’.
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It gave no details about the counter-proposals. Israel is not actively participating in ceasefire negotiations that are being held by Qatar, Egypt and Hamas in Doha.
Israeli families and others rallied again Saturday evening in continued protests calling for a deal that would bring the hostages home and end the war, holding Netanyahu’s government responsible for the fate of captives who they fear might be killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
"The price of your war is the life of the hostages," some protesters chanted in Tel Aviv. As tensions rose, scuffles broke out with police.
"War will not bring our hostages home, it will kill them," Naama Weinberg, cousin of deceased hostage Itay Svirsky, told a weekly gathering of families in Tel Aviv.
An Egyptian official previously described the proposal to the Associated Press, saying Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, from Gaza in return for Israel allowing aid into the territory and a weeks-long pause in fighting.
Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media on the closed-door talks.
On 18 March, Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people – almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel resumed its bombing campaign.
That day, 180 children were reported killed in Gaza – marking “one of the largest single-day child death toll in the last year” according to UNICEF.
Before that, on 2 March, Israel re-imposed a total blockade of humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip, as food, fuel and medical supplies are quickly running out.
Despite this, Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns the 59 hostages it still holds - 24 of them believed to be alive.
Israel also wants Hamas to give up power, disarm and send its leaders into exile.
On Saturday, Israel widened its ground operations in Gaza's southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas' October 7 2023 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants.
Israel's bombardment and ground operations have caused vast destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza's population of more than two million people.
Israel had balked at entering negotiations over the truce's second phase, which were meant to begin in early February.
Under the agreement, phase two was meant to bring the release of the remaining 24 living hostages, an end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
