Israel’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday that there were encouraging signs in the U.S.-led efforts to restart intensive cease-fire negotiations with Hamas, adding that Israel was eager for talks to resume “as soon as possible.”
The remarks by the minister, Gideon Saar, came one day after President Trump said Israel had agreed to “conditions to finalize” a 60-day cease-fire with Hamas, which would free some of the hostages still held in Gaza.
“There are some positive signs,” Mr. Saar told reporters at a news conference in Estonia. “But our goal is to begin proximity talks as soon as possible,” he added, referring to the mediated shuttle diplomacy needed to flesh out details of the agreement.
Hamas said on Wednesday that it was considering the new U.S.-backed proposal.
The momentum toward new talks picked up just ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned meeting with President Trump next week in Washington. And it followed the recent U.S. decision to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites, a longstanding Israeli ambition.
Mr. Trump, who has voiced increasing frustration with what he has labeled “this very brutal war” in Gaza, says he hopes to see a cease-fire reached as soon as next week.
Three Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy, said the latest U.S.-backed effort aimed to offer Hamas stronger assurances that the temporary truce could carve out a path toward a permanent cessation of hostilities.
But the exact terms of the new U.S. outline remained unclear, and the two sides would need more talks to work out the details of the truce, let alone a permanent cease-fire.
While some officials were suggesting that Israel had softened its position, Mr. Netanyahu vowed again in a speech on Wednesday to “fundamentally eliminate” Hamas.
“I am telling you — there will be no more Hamas,” he said. “We are not going back to that.”
Though Israeli officials were cautiously optimistic on the state of the talks, it was not clear the latest formula would overcome the sticking points that have consistently dogged the negotiations to end the war.
Mr. Netanyahu has said that he is ready for a temporary cease-fire, but that he will not permanently stop the war unless Hamas ends its rule in Gaza and its leaders go into exile, conditions that Hamas rejects.
Hamas leaders say they will release all the remaining hostages — about 20 of living captives and the bodies of about 30 others — only if Israel ends the war permanently.
Moving ahead with the cease-fire talks could also rattle Mr. Netanyahu’s grip on power. His far-right coalition partners, including two senior ministers, oppose ending the war and call for indefinite Israeli rule in Gaza instead.
But some analysts say Mr. Netanyahu may now be ready to change course.
Buoyed by what many Israelis consider his successful June war with Iran, he now performs more strongly in opinion polls than at almost any point since the war began.
Mr. Netanyahu might now be willing to risk the collapse of his governing coalition, analysts say, particularly if he can capitalize on an end to the war in Gaza to advance Israel’s diplomatic ties with neighboring Arab countries.
More than 56,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The war began when Hamas and its allies attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. More than 250 others were taken hostage, according to Israel.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to two short-lived cease-fires, both of which saw hostages in Gaza swapped for Palestinian prisoners. During the last truce, which Israel ended in mid-March, Israel released more than 1,500 prisoners and Hamas turned over 30 hostages and the bodies of eight more.
Israeli forces kept up attacks across Gaza on Wednesday. In one strike, they killed Marwan al-Sultan, a Gaza doctor who had led the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The hospital is currently out of service following Israeli military operations. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv.
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