Nick Schifrin:
Well, Geoff, as you said, Israel has accepted this proposal, which would be a 60-day cease-fire of the war in Gaza. Hamas would release five living hostages the first day and five more living hostages after the first week. Hamas would also return the bodies of 18 dead Israeli hostages.
In exchange, Israel would release thousands of Palestinian detainees, including more than 100 serving life sentences. But this would not, as you said, end the war or require Israel to withdraw from Gaza. And those are the main sticking points.
A senior U.S. official tells me tonight, Geoff, that Hamas continues to demand that Israel and the U.S. guarantee that the war will not start after these 60 days, because Israel restarted the war after the last cease-fire, despite Hamas’ expectations that the war would end.
There’s another draft, Geoff, that would end the war and would release all the hostages. But this official tells me that is not something Israel supports and it’s not the basis of the draft that we’re talking about today.
Finally, this draft would also restart some U.N. food aid into Gaza, but not as much as Hamas wants.
