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It was unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was on board with the terms, which came as Qatar and Egypt were intensifying mediation efforts.
Aug. 18, 2025Updated 5:00 p.m. ET
Hamas has accepted a new cease-fire proposal for Gaza put forward by Qatar and Egypt that would see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, two diplomats familiar with the negotiations and an Egyptian official said on Monday.
It was unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel would accept the proposal, which came as Qatar and Egypt were intensifying their mediation efforts ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion into Gaza City.
The plan would also require Israel to redeploy its forces in Gaza, and it would allow enough humanitarian aid to enter the territory to meet the needs of Palestinians, two of the officials said.
The latest terms are similar to those that Israel had previously accepted and they include both a temporary cease-fire and a path to an agreement to end the war, according to the two diplomats and the Egyptian official.
Israel has agreed in the past to the release of half of the hostages believed to be alive in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners as part of an initial cease-fire, and to the release of the remaining hostages as part of a comprehensive follow-up deal.
In a statement, Hamas said that it and other Palestinian groups had agreed to a proposal presented by Egyptian and Qatari mediators on Sunday.
The two diplomats and Egyptian officials spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
During previous rounds of negotiations, hopes for a cease-fire had been raised only to be dashed days later. Both Israelis and Palestinians have expressed concern that the continuation of the war is endangering hostages held by militants in Gaza and Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire.
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Up to 20 hostages are still believed to be living, according to the Israeli authorities. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are also being held in Gaza. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza, according to the Gazan health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that the prime minister had spoken with Defense Minister Israel Katz and the Israeli military “about our plans regarding Gaza City and the completion of our missions.”
The comments released by his office discussed neither Gaza City at length nor Israel’s position on the diplomatic efforts to achieve a cease-fire. Still, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I hear the reports in the media, and from them you can be impressed by one thing — Hamas is under immense pressure.”
Last week, Mr. Netanyahu suggested Israel was no longer interested in a deal that would involve the release of only some hostages.
“I think that is behind us,” he told the Hebrew-language channel of i24 News.
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Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, told families of Israeli hostages this month at a meeting that President Trump now wanted to see all the living hostages released at once.
“No piecemeal deals, that doesn’t work,” Mr. Witkoff said, according to an audio recording of part of the meeting published by the Ynet Hebrew news site.
“Now we think that we have to shift this negotiation to ‘all or nothing’ — everybody comes home,” he said. “We have a plan around it,” he added, without elaborating. A participant in the meeting confirmed that Mr. Witkoff made such remarks.
Hamas has said it is willing to release all the hostages on condition that Israel ends the war. But Hamas officials have not publicly accepted Mr. Netanyahu’s conditions for ending the war, including the group’s disarmament.
Still, Hamas appeared to be showing flexibility in agreeing to the latest proposal, according to two Israeli officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private assessments. The group shifted its position on almost every issue that was in dispute during a push for a cease-fire in July, the officials said.
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Earlier on Monday, Mr. Trump appeared to offer his support for Israel’s expanding of the war in Gaza.
“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!” he wrote on Truth Social. “The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.”
Abu Bakr Bashir, Vivian Yee, Fatima AbdulKarim, and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting to this article.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv.
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