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A protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.Credit...Itay Cohen/Reuters
U.S. and Israel float ‘all or nothing’ Gaza deal
After months of work on a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza that has appeared to reach an impasse, U.S. and Israeli officials have signaled that they will push for a comprehensive agreement to end the war.
“We think that we have to shift this negotiation to ‘all or nothing’ — everybody comes home,” Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s envoy to the Middle East, said in an audio recording of a meeting with hostages’ families over the weekend.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Trump are said to be working on a deal that would present Hamas with an ultimatum: release the remaining hostages and agree to terms that would disarm the group, or Israel’s military campaign would continue.
The prospect of quickly advancing toward such a deal appeared dim. Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas official, said that the group had not received a proposal for a comprehensive deal and that while Hamas supported such an agreement in principle, it would not disarm.
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The shift in tone comes as the Israeli government faces global criticism over starvation in Gaza and growing domestic pressure to secure the release of the hostages still held there. Hamas released a video on Friday showing Evyatar David, one of the 20 hostages Israel believes are still living, emaciated in what appeared to be an underground tunnel.
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