The families of Israeli captives held in Gaza reached out to Hamas through a representative to ask about the fate of stalled ceasefire talks, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Sources told MEE that the third party reached out to Hamas after the captives’ families feared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin was trying to torpedo a possible deal.
A senior figure within Hamas told the representative to relay to the families that it was “serious” about reaching an agreement to end the war and release the captives, but that it was facing “intransigent Israeli positions”, sources told MEE.
“Hamas is serious about reaching an agreement to end the war and establish arrangements that ensure calm and stability. It has demonstrated significant flexibility and positive responsibility during the negotiation rounds,” the sources quoted Hamas as saying.
“Israel has insisted on continuing the war, destroying the Gaza Strip, displacing its population, and imposing a state of hunger, suffering, and ongoing massacres that have not ceased for a single day.”
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Hamas and Israel reached a brief three-stage ceasefire in January, but the deal collapsed in March after Israel took back several of its captives and resumed bombing Gaza, walking away from the deal before talks with Hamas on a permanent end to the war could start.
Since then, the Trump administration has given Israel full backing to wage war on Gaza.
According to sources, the Hamas official told the representative that the Palestinian movement had complied with “everything stipulated” in the first phase of the previous ceasefire, which was supposed to transition to phase two talks on ending the war.
Before withdrawing from the ceasefire, Hamas said that Israel committed “hundreds of violations”, including deploying troops beyond “buffer zones”, killing 132 civilians, preventing the inflow of reconstruction material, and remaining in the Philadelphia Corridor that separates Gaza from Egypt.
Hamas reportedly told the representative that despite Israel unilaterally resuming the war, it responded to proposals by mediators to revive the ceasefire, “but Israel rejected them and insisted on releasing half of the Israeli prisoners without offering any guarantees that the war would cease. In fact, it openly insisted on its continuation”.
As it stands, there are believed to be around 20 living captives in Gaza and just over 30 dead Israelis. Since the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, the country’s military has only rescued eight captives in raids that have seen hundreds of Palestinians killed.
In their conversation, Hamas also told the representative to relay to the captives’ families that Israel had “without any justification, returned to war in a shocking, more brutal, and more destructive manner than before, committing massacres on a daily basis.”
According to sources, the Hamas official told the representative that despite the mounting civilian death toll it had “no problem” with resuming negotiations and had “responded to several proposals presented by mediators, but Israel rejected them and insisted on releasing half of the Israeli prisoners without offering any guarantees that the war would cease.”
Hamas also reportedly told the representative that it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who had “without any justification, returned to war in a shocking, more brutal, and more destructive manner than before, committing massacres on a daily basis.”
The movement said that despite the daily massacres, where on average 100 Palestinians are killed every 24 hours, it had “no problem” with resuming negotiations and “responded to several proposals presented by mediators, but Israel rejected them and insisted on releasing half of the Israeli prisoners without offering any guarantees that the war would cease.”
The group also maintained that it responded positively to US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s ceasefire proposal “in order to reach an agreement” but Netanyahu was taking “a hardline stance,” and seeking to control large swathes of the strip and displace more than 600,000 Palestinians.
The sources said that the Hamas official reiterated that Netanyahu was to blame for the captives’ plight after he “rejected” the group’s offer to release “all Israeli prisoners at once in exchange for ending the war.”
The sources said that Hamas also told the representatives that it was ready to transfer power after the war ends to an “independent, professional committee to govern Gaza with full powers,” and that the group would not play any role in running the enclave.
Talks remain deadlocked
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said talks on a Gaza ceasefire were going along well, repeating remarks he made a week earlier when Netanyahu visited Washington.
In contrast, MEE reported on Saturday that Hamas negotiators were sceptical that a ceasefire agreement could be reached in the current round of talks in Doha, Qatar.
Sources close to Palestinian negotiators said talks have remained deadlocked over at least two of four key issues.
The first is the extent of the proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip during a 60-day truce. The second is the method of aid distribution.
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The US has reportedly proposed postponing discussions on these two points, instead focusing on the names of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in exchange for the remaining Israeli captives.
According to the sources, Hamas told the representative for the captives’ families that it asked to amend three points related to the distribution of aid, the deployment of Israeli soldiers in Gaza and guarantees on ending the war after an initial 60-day truce is over.
“However, Israel has taken a hardline stance, particularly in its redeployment maps, where it seeks to control approximately 36 percent of the Gaza Strip’s area and keep approximately 600,000 residents displaced and unable to return to their homes,” Hamas is reported to have said.
“Israel has repeatedly rejected our offer to return all Israeli prisoners at once in exchange for ending the war.
“They rejected it and preferred a partial solution. This is a clear indication of their intention to continue the war and their disregard for prisoners as a central issue for Israeli society,” it added.
For more than 21 months, Israel has relentlessly bombed the besieged Gaza Strip, displacing the entire 2.3 million population multiple times, and has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
The figure also includes at least 1,400 health sector professionals, 280 United Nations aid workers – the highest staff death toll in UN history – and at least 228 journalists, with the highest number of media workers killed in conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists began recording data in 1992.
