Israel proposed a temporary cease-fire extension in Gaza for the Ramadan and Passover holidays, the prime minister’s office announced around midnight on Saturday as the initial phase of the truce was expiring.
It appeared to be the Israeli government’s effort to make its opening negotiating position clear, as it and Hamas struggle to move from the first phase of the cease-fire into a second, more comprehensive phase as the deal initially called for.
The Israeli announcement came after a cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attended by Israel’s minister of defense, senior defense officials and a negotiating team, according to the prime minister’s office.
But there is still much uncertainty about what will happen next in Gaza. Earlier Saturday, a Hamas spokesman told Al-Araby TV that the militant group had rejected Israel’s framework for an extension, Reuters reported.
Both Israel and Hamas have reasons to avoid another round of fighting, at least for now. Hamas wants to give its forces a chance to recuperate, while Israel wants to bring home the remaining hostages. But the prospect of a comprehensive agreement seems remote.
And Hamas is unlikely to accept Israel’s offer without further negotiations, according to Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The proposal, he said, “allows Israelis to get hostages back without making reciprocal commitments.”
Under Israel’s proposal, which it attributed to the U.S. envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, half of the remaining hostages held in Gaza would be released to Israel on the first day of the agreement.
If, at the end of the temporary extension a permanent truce had been reached, the rest of the hostages would then be returned.
Ramadan concludes at the end of March, while Passover runs until April 20, which under this proposal would give Israel and Hamas about seven weeks to reach a comprehensive agreement.
“Hamas is not going to return all of the hostages until it has ironclad guarantees that the Israelis will withdraw their forces and formally declare and abide by an end of the war,” Mr. Miller said. “No one is going to give Hamas that guarantee,” he added.
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the agreed-upon deal, which was set forth in the final days of the Biden administration. Phase 1 of that deal, which ended March 1, allowed for a six-week truce to negotiate the terms for an end to the war.
The terms of the agreement included the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Israel over the last weekend delayed the release of hundreds of prisoners in protest of Hamas’s having paraded Israeli hostages in public spectacles before handing them over.
The negotiations between Hamas and Israel that were supposed have been completed by this weekend still have not begun in earnest, though officials from each party did visit Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to discuss the next steps. Mr. Netanyahu has stated that Israel was ready to resume fighting if Hamas did not disarm voluntarily.
Hamas has avoided outright calls for a resumption in hostilities, though the group has refused to surrender.
