Said Amori and Rania Abu Shamala
31 May 2025•Update: 31 May 2025
JERUSALEM /ISTANBUL
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Hamas' response to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal for a possible prisoner exchange deal is "unacceptable."
Earlier, the Palestinian group announced that it had submitted a response to Witkoff's latest Gaza ceasefire proposal through mediators Egypt and Qatar.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office claimed that the group's response “is unacceptable and sets the process back.”
Earlier, Witkoff also rejected Hamas' response to the US proposal on Gaza ceasefire, describing it “totally unacceptable.”
“I received the Hamas response to the United States’ proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward,” Witkoff said on X.
He highlighted that “that is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.”
In what appeared to be a list of demands, Hamas issued a statement calling for “a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and guarantees for the continuous flow of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the territory.”
Under the framework of the proposal, the movement proposed releasing 10 Israeli captives and handing over the bodies of 18 others in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners.
While Hamas did not provide further details, Israeli and US media, as well as Palestinian sources close to the Hamas movement, earlier reported that the proposal includes a prisoner exchange in which 10 Israelis would be released in exchange for 125 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, 1,111 detainees from Gaza captured after October 7, 2023, and 180 Palestinian bodies.
The releases would be carried out simultaneously and in two phases—the first on day one and the second on day seven—with no public ceremonies.
The proposal also stipulates that humanitarian aid would enter Gaza immediately after approval, to be distributed by the UN and the Red Crescent, with a guarantee of maintaining the ceasefire throughout the agreement period and any subsequent extension.
The terms also include a redeployment of Israeli forces inside Gaza after the exchange phases are completed, starting from the northern part of the Strip and the Netzarim corridor, down to the south.
Israel has pursued a devastating offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million population.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.
