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The Trump administration is proposing a 21-day truce in Gaza and the release of six hostages as part of a plan that Hamas and Israeli negotiators will discuss with mediators in Egypt this week, sources told The National on Wednesday.
They said that Israeli and Hamas negotiators were expected in Cairo on Thursday, when they will begin discussions on the proposal with mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar.
The latest attempt to reach a Gaza ceasefire comes days before President Donald Trump starts a tour of the Middle East that will take him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
The sources said the US proposal provided for the release of six living hostages, including a dual US-Israel national, and the remains of six others who died while in captivity. Israel will free an as-yet unspecified number of Palestinians detained in its prisons, they added.
Hamas is believed to be still holding 59 hostages, of whom 24 are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli military.
The US proposal makes no mention of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza or a permanent ceasefire – two long-standing demands by Hamas – or include ideas on how post-war Gaza will be run or rebuilt, according to the sources.
They said the humanitarian assistance that will flow into Gaza if a deal is reached would only be distributed at a proposed “safe zone” in the southern part of the coastal enclave around the city of Rafah.
A private US company will be entrusted with the distribution of aid under the supervision of the Israeli military. Both the company and the military would jointly work to ensure that Hamas is denied access to the aid, said the sources. Entry into the safe zone would only be granted after security screening of the Palestinians wishing to receive food and other supplies, a measure designed to keep militants out, they said.
Gaza's estimated 2.3 million residents are facing acute food shortages as a result of Israel's two-month blockade of the territory, where more than 52,000 Palestinians have died since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
The sources spoke two days after they told The National that Israel was planning to push the entire Gaza population to a “safe zone” in the south of the enclave where it will distribute humanitarian assistance.
They said that Israel expected 500,000 to 900,000 Palestinians to remain in the so-called safe zone after the rest of the population has left the enclave to seek a better life elsewhere.
The zone will be created over an area of between 50 and 70 square kilometres near Egypt's border with Gaza, they said, and Israel expects Palestinians from across the enclave to rush to the safe zone to escape hunger and intensifying military operations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet voted this week to intensify the offensive against Hamas in Gaza to the point of seizing the entire enclave, according to Israeli officials.
They said the newly approved Gaza offensive plan would move the strip's civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into the hands of Hamas.
They explained that Israel intended to provide Palestinians inside the zone with so little food and rudimentary services that they will find life too hard and leave.
Israel has embraced proposals first made by Mr Trump in January to resettle Gaza's Palestinians, mainly in Egypt and Jordan, before effecting a US takeover of the territory on a corner of the Eastern Mediterranean and turning it into a kitsch beach resort.
Cairo and Amman, along with many nations around the world and UN agencies, denounced the proposals, with some labelling the plan as ethnic cleansing.
Also on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the US and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza.
Quoting sources, they said the “high-level” consultations have centred on a transitional government led by a US official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarised and stabilised, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged.
Hamas has already expressed its readiness to be excluded from running post-war Gaza and the reconstruction of the territory, where most of its built-up areas have been reduced to rubble.
Gaza has since the war started had two ceasefires; one of a week in late November 2023 and another that went into effect on January 19, 2025, and ended on March 1. Gaza remained relatively calm until March 18, when Israeli resumed air strikes and ground operations.
As well as the large number of deaths, the war has wounded more than 100,000 Palestinians, according to figures released by authorities in Gaza.
