The U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff calls Hamas’s response to the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip “totally unacceptable.” Hamas claimed to be “positive” about that proposal, but asked for a number of adjustments.
For several days, there has been talk of a possible sixty-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel already indicated on Thursday that it agreed with the American proposal, in which Israeli hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas also sent a response to the international mediators. The precise content of that is not known, but according to Hamas itself, the reaction is “positive.” However, the group did ask for adjustments to be made.
But that is not how the American special envoy interprets the response. “I have received Hamas’s response to the United States’ proposal. It is completely unacceptable and only takes us back,” Witkoff writes on X. With a positive response, the proposal would have been a good basis for follow-up talks next week, according to the envoy.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said shortly after Witkoff’s response that Israel would continue its actions in Gaza to bring back the hostages and defeat Hamas.
In recent months, it has become clear that Hamas and Israel have very different conditions for peace. Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and demands that all Israeli troops withdraw. Israel demands that Hamas be completely dismantled as a military and administrative power. But Hamas is not prepared to give up its weapons.
Group of starving Palestinians plunders 77 UN trucks with food
According to the plan that has been circulating for several days, there would be a sixty-day ceasefire, in which ten hostages and eighteen bodies would be returned in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas said it agreed with that part of the agreement in its response.
A ceasefire that was agreed earlier this year ended on March 18 when Israel began new attacks. At that time, the first phase of the ceasefire had ended and talks were taking place about the second phase.
In the meantime, aid organizations are raising the alarm about the deteriorating food situation in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is now the “hungriest place on earth,” said a spokesperson for the UN emergency relief organization OCHA on Friday. On Saturday, a group of starving Palestinians plundered 77 UN trucks with food, according to the World Food Program (WFP).