WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel has agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal for Gaza, the White House said on Thursday, and Hamas said it was reviewing it as a U.S.-backed system for distributing food aid in the shattered enclave expanded.
Israeli media reported earlier that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted a deal presented by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Netanyahu’s office did not confirm the reports, but White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in Washington that Israel had signed off on the proposal.
She did not detail its contents. But the New York Times quoted an Israeli official familiar with the proposal as saying the initial phase would include a 60-day ceasefire and humanitarian aid flowing through U.N.-run operations.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, “is studying the amended Witkoff proposal with a high sense of responsibility, stemming from interest to achieve the interests of our people and ensure an end to the aggression,” a Hamas official told Reuters.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the United States and endorsed by Israel, expanded its aid distribution to a third site on Thursday.
Heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as inadequate and flawed, the group’s operation began this week in Gaza, where the U.N. has said 2 million people are at risk of famine after Israel’s 11-week blockade on aid entering the enclave.
The aid launch was marred by tumultuous scenes on Tuesday when thousands of Palestinians rushed distribution points and forced private security contractors to retreat.
The chaotic start to the operation has raised international pressure on Israel to get more food in and halt the fighting in Gaza. GHF has so far supplied about 1.8 million meals and plans to open more sites in the coming weeks.
Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to “sending out a new term sheet” about a ceasefire to the two sides in the conflict that has raged since October 2023.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict,” Witkoff said then.
It was unclear how the proposal might overcome the deep differences between Hamas and Israel that have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March after only two months.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all the 58 hostages still held in Gaza must be returned before it will agree to end the war.
Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that have normally been reluctant to criticise it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the devastating attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say, and left the enclave in ruins.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Yomna Ehab in Cairo, and Doina Chiacu and Rami Ayyub in Washington; Writing by James Mackenzie and Cynthia Osterman; Editing by Giles Elgood and Daniel Wallis)
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