Hamas rejects hostage deal, Gallant blames its leadership abroad - report

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant blamed Hamas’s leadership abroad for thwarting a hostage deal by taking a hardline stance, as KAN News reported that the terror group had rejected the latest Israeli initiative.

“I am now hearing the beginning of all kinds of announcements on behalf of all kinds of Hamas officials, who are talking about hostage deals, as a result of their contacts in Egypt and Qatar,” Gallant told soldiers during a visit down south.

He charged that “the most extreme people in the Hamas negotiations are the ones who are the furthest away from the Gaza Strip, those who fly in luxury planes [and] sit in luxury hotels.”

“Those who suffer in Gaza and are constantly under your tanks’ chains are not such heroes. I hear what they say; most of them want to stop” fighting, Gallant said.

An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that, "I don't know of any formal response to Israel's initiative that has been received."

Reuters had raised hopes of progress on a deal with its report on Wednesday morning that Israel and Hamas broadly agree in principle that an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners could take place during a month-long ceasefire, but the framework plan is being held up by the two sides’ differences over how to bring a permanent end to the Gaza war.

Hamas has insisted that any deal must include a permanent ceasefire, while Israel has stood on its principled position that the war can only end when the terror group is ousted from the enclave.

KAN said that Hamas, in rejecting the latest proposal, had wanted the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza in the first stage of the deal. Many of the proposals have included phased releases of the 132 hostages still held in Gaza.

On the American Front

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that special envoy Brett McGurk was in Doha to discuss a hostage deal. Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators between Hamas and Israel on the issue.

“Brett is in the region right now; this is top of his agenda. He is in Doha today,” Kirby said.

“These are very sober and serious discussions we are having. We certainly want another humanitarian pause so we can get aid in and hostages out,” he stated.

The US has supported Israel’s military goal and has stated publicly that it does not believe there should be a ceasefire until Hamas is defeated.

At the Knesset, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that this “is a war for our home. It must end – and it will end – with the defeat of the aggression and evil of the new Nazis.

“Anyone who participated took hostages, and raped and murdered our citizens brought unprecedented destruction on themselves,” Netanyahu said.

“There is not, nor will there be, any compromise about safeguarding our existence and our future for generations to come,” he stressed.

THE LATEST round of shuttle diplomacy started on Dec. 28 and has narrowed disagreements about the length of an initial ceasefire to around 30 days, said one of the sources, an official briefed on the negotiations. Hamas had first proposed a pause of several months. 

However, Hamas has since refused to move forward with the plans until the future conditions of a permanent ceasefire are agreed upon, according to six sources. Most of the sources consulted for this story requested anonymity in order to speak freely about sensitive matters.

WHILE ISRAEL has sought to negotiate one stage at a time, Hamas is seeking “a package deal” in which there would be a permanent ceasefire before hostages are released during the initial phase, said one of the sources, a Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts. Israel and Hamas are speaking through the mediators rather than talking directly.

Two Egyptian security sources said that there was work underway to convince Hamas to accept a one-month truce, to be followed by a permanent ceasefire. However, in order to agree to the initial truce, Hamas is requesting guarantees that the second phase of the deal will be carried out, the sources said.

The sources did not provide details regarding what such guarantees might consist of.

Asked about the negotiations, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Monday that the organization was open to discussing ideas but that no deal was yet in place.

“We are open to all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and the occupation’s complete pullout from the Gaza Strip,” said Abu Zuhri.

One offer by Israel is to end the war if Hamas removes six senior leaders from Gaza, said a seventh source, a senior Hamas official. However, Hamas “absolutely” rejected the proposal, he said.

The source said the list included the masterminds of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Yahya Sinwar and Mohamed al-Deif, who are Israel’s top targets to kill or capture and are thought to be hiding deep within the terror group’s extensive network of tunnels beneath Gaza.

Qatar said it was appalled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called them “problematic mediators,” in a conversation he held with relatives of the hostages held in Gaza.

“We are appalled by the alleged remarks attributed to the Israeli Prime Minister in various media reports about Qatar’s mediation role,” Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari wrote in a post on X.

“These remarks if validated, are irresponsible and destructive to the efforts to save innocent lives, but are not surprising,” he said.

Ansari accused Netanyahu of undermining the mediation.

 “If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli Prime Minister would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,” Ansari said.

 “Instead of concerning himself with Qatar’s strategic relations with the United States, we hope Netanyahu decides to operate in good faith and concentrate on the release of the hostages,” he said.

The comments were said during a private meeting that was taped. That tape was then leaked to Channel 12, which published Netanyahu’s remarks on Tuesday night.

Qatar and Egypt have been mediating a potential second hostage deal for the remaining 132 captives, out of the 253 that Hamas seized during its October 7 cross-border massacre attack against Israel.

During a November deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt, 105 were freed. The IDF returned eleven bodies of the captives from Gaza.

Answer said that “for months, and following a successful mediation last year that led to the release of more than a hundred hostages, Qatar has been engaged in regular dialogue with the negotiating parties including Israeli institutions, attempting to establish the framework for a new hostage agreement and the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

British Foreign Security David Cameron, who visited Israel on Wednesday and met with Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz, wrote in a post on X that he focused on three goals during his visit: securing the immediate release of the hostages, increasing aid to Gaza and ensuring an immediate humanitarian pause, as well as the movement toward a permanent ceasefire.

He is expected to also visit Qatar during his trip to the region.

Reuters contributed to this report.