TEL AVIV — Nearly a week after Hamas accepted the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal from Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Israel has yet to respond – even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims he is “immediately” starting negotiations to release all the hostages and end the war.
The silence reflects a fundamental shift in Israel’s approach that has befuddled mediators and families of the remaining hostages, who have accused Netanyahu of abandoning and sacrificing their loved ones.
After 18 months of agreeing only to partial, phased ceasefire deals, Netanyahu is now demanding a comprehensive agreement that would secure the release of all hostages and end the war entirely – on Israel’s terms. The policy reversal comes as the prime minister simultaneously accelerates plans for a massive military assault on Gaza City, pursuing a dual strategy of negotiating while waging war to “defeat Hamas.”
On Thursday, Netanyahu declared that he had instructed his team to immediately start negotiations for the return of all the hostages and end the war in Gaza. But he did so without once mentioning the proposal currently on the table – which calls for a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of half of the hostages. The latest proposal is similar to the 60-day ceasefire Netanyahu agreed to last month, only with terms more favorable to Israel after Hamas showed flexibility on the number of prisoners to be released and the size of the security perimeter.
At the same time, Netanyahu made a point of continuing to advance plans for the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) massive assault and takeover of Gaza City. Israel attributes Hamas’ concessions to the threat of its imminent Gaza City offensive, and Israeli officials say they believe the renewed threat of heavy military pressure will make Hamas more flexible to accept Israel’s conditions to end the war.
Israel has long claimed that military pressure will force Hamas to the table, but the terror group, while depleted, has defied defeat despite nearly two years of fighting.
Netanyahu has not explained what caused this dramatic shift from a partial to a comprehensive negotiation framework, and his mixed messaging has left many in Israel and abroad confused: for a year and a half the government refused to discuss ending the war and only agreed to negotiate phased and partial ceasefire agreements. Now he’s opting only for a comprehensive deal and has been reluctant to respond to the mediators’ latest proposal that was accepted by Hamas,
Basem Naim, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, said in a statement, “The movement has presented everything necessary to reach a ceasefire agreement and is still ready to do so with all national responsibility and an open mind.” Naim said that Netanyahu has a “green light” from the Trump administration to continue what he called a “dirty game.”
According to senior Israeli sources, the answer in Netanyahu’s new negotiations strategy lies not in Jerusalem but in Washington. In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has expressed explicit public support for Israel’s renewed assault in Gaza, adopting the Israeli rhetoric aiming to destroy Hamas, instead of pushing for a temporary ceasefire.
“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” President Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform last week.
According to one senior Israeli source, after Hamas raised obstacles during the last round of negotiations in Qatar in July, Trump “lost patience and trust with the partial process and doesn’t believe Hamas actually wants a deal.”
This echoes remarks his envoy Steve Witkoff made after the latest round of talks collapsed, slamming Hamas as uncoordinated and not acting in good faith and saying the US would explore alternative options to secure hostage release and stabilize Gaza.
“It was too bad. Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die,” Trump told reporters outside the White House at the time. Shortly after the comments, Netanyahu’s office shifted to an “all or nothing” approach, demanding a comprehensive deal.
In the latest Israeli security cabinet meeting, during which Netanyahu’s government approved the decision to expand and deepen the operation in Gaza City, five conditions were set to end the war: disarmament of Hamas, the release of all the hostages, demilitarization of Gaza while maintaining Israeli security control, and the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
But Hamas has drawn a red line at any notion of disarming. Israeli analysts say Netanyahu’s double-messaging – pursuing war and peace – is a political tactic to buy time. It prolongs the war and his own rule.
“Netanyahu is fully aware that Hamas will never accept his conditions for ending the war – and that is precisely his point,” Chaim Levinson, a senior diplomatic commentator for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, told CNN. Netanyahu’s demand for territorial control over large swaths of Gaza “is likely to derail any potential agreement.”
Netanyahu has demanded full Israeli security control over Gaza in any post-war scenario, a scenario in which Israel would retain the right to carry out strikes in Gaza. “Under such conditions, no one will invest in Gaza, since the territory would remain trapped in a state of ongoing conflict,” Levinson said.
While repeated polling has shown that the vast majority of the Israeli public would support any deal that would bring back the hostages - Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, adamantly oppose any ceasefire or end to the war, and have warned more than once that it could lead to the collapse of his government.
Because of that overt threat, all of the hostage deals so far were designed as phased and gradual, according to an Israeli source with knowledge of the negotiations. The partial approach enabled Netanyahu to promise his coalition partners that Israel will resume the war eventually.
Netanyahu’s far-right allies have pressed the Israeli leader to expand the war and ramp up the bombardment of the devastated enclave until Hamas surrenders.
Former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Biden administration believed Netanyahu was throwing up roadblocks to a ceasefire deal. “There were times that we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to get a deal,” he told Israel’s Channel 13. But the administration kept the disagreements private, Miller said, because former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar pulled back from negotiations when he saw a split between the US and Israel.
The prime minister’s latest maneuvering and perceived double messaging has escalated tensions between his government and the families of the remaining hostages in Gaza. The families, who have been ramping up public pressure since the cabinet approved the Gaza City offensive, accused the government of sacrificing the hostages by delaying or dismissing the partial agreement on the table.
After launching some of the largest anti-war protests Israel has seen since the beginning of the conflict nearly two years ago, the hostage families are scheduling another protest for Tuesday night, trying to keep the pressure on a government they feel is deaf to their cries of pain.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan, who is held hostage in Gaza, blamed Netanyahu for torpedoing the negotiations. “You are setting unattainable conditions to end the war, preparing the army to conquer Gaza, you will lead soldiers into death traps,” she said at a demonstration on Friday night outside the prime minister’s residence. “You will sentence Matan to death, you will cause the deceased hostages to disappear forever!”
In an attempt to brush off public criticism, Netanyahu’s office briefed Israeli reporters over the weekend that he will be sending a negotiation team as soon as a location is set for the talks.
But without a site selected for the next attempt at ceasefire negotiations – and with the US team tied up with Ukraine and Russia – Netanyahu can pursue his dual strategy: making statements about ending the war while taking military action that escalates it. – CNN
