In the hours before the IDF nighttime strike against Hamas in Gaza, Israel received an update from the mediators and the negotiation team that Hamas is refusing to compromise on the hostage talks, a source told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“The de facto leader of Hamas, Mohammed Sinwar [Yahya Sinwar’s brother], is placing obstacles in the attempts to reach agreements,” the source said. “Hamas is currently refusing to release hostages according to the Witkoff proposal.”
In the proposal presented last week by Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy under US President Donald Trump, in Doha, Qatar, it was stipulated that Hamas would release five living hostages and return the bodies of several others who were killed – in exchange for a few weeks of ceasefire.
On Friday, Hamas announced that it was willing to release Edan Alexander, an IDF soldier with American citizenship, and return the bodies of four hostages, a proposal that the Trump administration deemed “unacceptable.”
During the late-night consultations on Monday evening, Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir urged the participants – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – to “take proactive action. It cannot be that there is no fire, but also no negotiations.”
Fighting resumes
In the end, the participants in the discussion unanimously supported resuming the fighting in Gaza. Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar also supported the proposal that in the absence of any progress toward a comprehensive deal, an offensive initiative could exert pressure on Hamas.
In Israel, there is hope that the US will now apply pressure on the mediators, and that they in turn would apply pressure on Hamas. “The US is 100% with us,” a source told the Post.
“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” US National Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the Post.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who has been a leading figure in the talks and has close ties with the Trump administration, updated Witkoff ahead of the military strike. “There was no need for a green light, due to the simple fact that Trump said, ‘What’s next – is Israel’s decision,’” said an official.A source familiar with the details told the Post, “The mediators are in a blitz to bring the sides back to the negotiating table.”Israel has also made it clear that from now on, there will be no negotiations unless they are conducted under fire: “Every few days, we will escalate our responses. Hamas needs to wake up and agree to a deal,” a source said.