US and Israel deny that agreement for hostage release and five day Gaza cease-fire is close

The US said there is no agreement yet between Israel and Hamas on the release of hostages after the Washington Post said a tentative one had been reached to free dozens of women and children held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.

“No deal yet but we continue to work hard to get a deal,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in response to the report of a US-brokered agreement.

President Joe Biden outlined a framework for Gaza’s postwar future in an op-ed article, including no renewed Israeli occupation, unified governance by “a revitalised Palestinian Authority” and an eventual reconstruction effort that includes interim security arrangements.

“To start, Gaza must never again be used as a platform for terrorism,” Biden said in the Washington Post on Saturday. “There must be no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no reduction in territory.”

In a warning to Israel, he floated the threat of US visa bans on “extremists” who attack Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

Netanyahu Says No Hostage Deal 

Netanyahu also dismissed speculation that a deal with Hamas to release Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip was within reach.

“We haven’t seen any deal. There were many things that didn’t come to fruition,” Netanyahu said at the news conference Saturday night, as tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to demand the hostages’ return. “When there’s something to say, we’ll say it.”

The Washington Post reported that Israel and Hamas were close to an agreement on a U.S.-brokered deal that would see a five-day pause in fighting in exchange for the release of dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza. The report quoted people familiar with the emerging terms of the deal.

In her Washington Post article, journalist  Karen De Young wrote that a six-page set of written terms would require all parties to the conflict to freeze combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more hostages are released in smaller batches every 24 hours. The report did not specify how many of the 239 people believed to be in captivity in Gaza would be released under the deal. The stop in fighting is also intended to allow a significant increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance, including fuel, to enter the besieged enclave from Egypt. 

The Washington Post reported that the outline of a deal was put together during weeks of talks in Doha, Qatar, among Israel, the United States and Hamas, indirectly represented by Qatari mediators, according to Arab and other diplomats. But it remained unclear until now that Israel would agree to temporarily pause its offensive in Gaza, provided the conditions were right.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington told the Washington Post  late Saturday that “we are not going to comment” on any aspect of the hostage situation.

Hamas Says It’s Lost Contact With Some Hostages

Tens of thousands of Israelis joined families of the hostages held in Gaza at the tail end of a five-day march that reached Jerusalem on Saturday. A rally demanding the government secure the release of all the hostages will be held outside the Knesset later in the day, the public broadcaster Kan News reported.

Representatives of the hostage families will meet Saturday evening with former Defense Minister Benny Gantz and ex-IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot — members of Israel’s war cabinet — Haaretz reported.

Bloomberg reports that Hamas has lost contact with groups assigned to guard some hostages according to the spokesman of Hamas’s armed wing. He didn’t say how many of the approximately 240 hostages held in Gaza were unaccounted for.

“The fate of the captives and captors is still unknown,” the spokesman, Abu Obaida, said in a statement.

The announcement is likely to further complicate mediation efforts to release hostages in exchange for a number of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, she said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. She’s also expected to visit Jordan on Saturday.

The two agreed on the principle of no forced displacement of Palestinians and a political horizon based on a two-state solution, Von der Leyen said, thanking Egypt for its role in facilitating humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Hamas must release more hostages in return for a significant increase in aid to Gaza and a pause in fighting, one of the US’s top Middle East envoys said on Saturday.

“The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause in fighting will come when hostages are released,” said Brett McGurk, who’s Joe Biden’s Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

McGurk, speaking at the IISS Manama Dialogue, a regional security conference in Bahrain, said the US’s approach has helped hostage negotiations so far.

The United Arab Emirates said it received the first plane carrying injured people from Gaza following its announcement that it would provide treatment for 1,000 children in Emirati hospitals.

The plane left from Egypt carrying 15 people, including children and their families, according to Afra Al Hameli, the UAE ministry of foreign affairs’ director of strategic communications.