Hamas has submitted its response to a US ceasefire proposal presented earlier this week.

This came after a senior Hamas official told a news agency that the Palestinian armed group will reject the latest US proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The White House said on Thursday that Israel had “signed off” on US Envoy, Steve Witkoff’s plan and that it was waiting for a formal response from Hamas.

In its response to the ceasefire proposal, Hamas said in a statement that it was prepared to release ten living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages, which is the number specified in the proposed deal, in exchange for an agreed-upon release of Palestinian prisoners.

However, it also outlined its reservations about the draft proposed by US Envoy, Steve Witkoff.

In a detailed response, Hamas repeated the movement’s well-known conditions: a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and guarantees for the continuous flow of humanitarian aid.

None of these are in the offer currently on the table, and Hamas’s response constituted neither an explicit rejection nor a clear acceptance of the proposal

The full details of the US-proposed ceasefire plan haven’t been made public and are unconfirmed.

Nonetheless, news agency reports claim that the key point include a 60-day pause in fighting, the release of 28 Israeli hostages – alive and dead – in the first week, and the release of 30 more once a permanent ceasefire is in place, the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians and the sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza via the United Nations and other agencies.

Hamas now finds itself in the most complex and difficult position it has faced since the war began.

Under intense pressure from 2.2 million people living the worst conditions in their history and from the mediators, the movement is unable to accept an American proposal that is, by all accounts, less generous than previous offers it has already rejected multiple times, the most recent being in March.

At that time, senior Hamas official and head negotiator Khalil al-Hayya stated unequivocally that the movement would not agree to partial deals that fail to secure a complete and permanent end to the war.

Yet, Hamas also finds itself unable to reject the latest US offer outright, fully aware that Israel is preparing to escalate its ground offensive in Gaza.

The movement lacks the military capacity to prevent or even seriously resist such an assault.

Caught between these two realities, Hamas released a brief and vague statement: neither a clear acceptance nor a definitive rejection.

In effect, the movement responded to the proposal not with an answer, but with an entirely new counterproposal.

60 Killed In Past 24 Hours

Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza released its daily report on the number of people killed and injured in the war.

The Hamas-run ministry disclosed that sixty people have died and a further 284 have been injured in the past 24 hours.

It added that it does not include numbers from hospitals located in the North Gaza Strip Governorate because of the difficulty of accessing the area.

That brings the death toll to 54,381 since the beginning of the war on 7 October 2023. A further 124,054 have been injured.

Israel began its military offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people.

Meanwhile, the families of Israelis still held captive in Gaza are organising another large rally calling for the release of all captives and to express their opposition to the government’s approach.

Einav Zangauker, whose son is being held in Gaza, said that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is only seeking a partial deal that does not end the war for the release of all captives – something that, he added, could spell a “death sentence” for them.