A day after Hamas signaled a willingness to release Israeli hostages as part of President Trump’s cease-fire proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Saturday that he, too, hoped to finalize a deal.
In a six-minute nighttime speech, he said that Israel was “on the brink of a great achievement” that could lead to the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
There were other positive signs. The Israeli government said on Saturday that it was preparing for the “immediate implementation” of the first steps of Mr. Trump’s proposal. Hours earlier, Hamas said in a statement that it was willing to release all of its remaining hostages in exchange for prisoners in Israel, a key part of the plan.
But reaching an agreement to fully carry out Mr. Trump’s ambitious plan — which would compel Hamas to disarm and relinquish any role in the postwar government of Gaza — remains a serious challenge.
Mr. Trump exuded confidence on Friday that a deal was imminent, saying it was a “big day,” while exhorting Israel to stop bombing Gaza. But he conceded that negotiators still needed “to get the final word down in concrete.”
Hamas’s statement did not say whether it would accept many of the conditions in Mr. Trump’s plan, including laying down its weapons. And it was unclear if Israel was willing to negotiate major changes to the plan’s postwar vision for Gaza, which Mr. Netanyahu said he supported during a visit to the White House last week.
In his speech, in which he repeatedly rebuked those who have demanded an end to the conflict in hopes of a hostage release, Mr. Netanyahu insisted that Hamas was only willing to free the hostages now because of the military and political pressure that he and Mr. Trump had applied.
“I withstood immense pressure from home and abroad to end the war,” he boasted.
Negotiations were getting back on track on Saturday. The Egyptian foreign ministry announced that it planned to host delegations from Israel and Hamas on Monday for indirect talks.
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy who was involved in drafting the cease-fire plan, was expected to head to the region soon, according to a White House official, an Israeli official and another official in the region.
And mediators from Qatar and Egypt were holding their own talks with Hamas about the proposal, while the United States was speaking with Israel, according to two diplomats with knowledge of the contacts. They spoke anonymously to candidly discuss the sensitive subject.
Israelis and Palestinians were caught between disbelief, tentative hope and utter confusion after the developments, which many hoped could at least bring an end to the nearly two-year war.
Following Mr. Trump’s demand for Israel to stop bombing, Israeli forces were instructed to shift to a defensive posture, although they generally remained in their positions, said three Israeli officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump wrote in a post on social media that “Hamas must move quickly, or else all bets will be off.” He added that he would “not tolerate delay, which many think will happen, or any outcome where Gaza poses a threat again.”
But it was unclear what that meant for Palestinians in Gaza, where around 66 people were reported killed on Friday, local health officials said, whose tolls do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Two Palestinians in Gaza said explosions and gunfire continued into the early morning, suggesting continued Israeli military activity. Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, warned displaced Palestinians against seizing on the optimism around a cease-fire to try to return to the north of the enclave.
Israeli soldiers “are still surrounding Gaza City, and attempting to return there poses extreme danger,” he said on social media.
Israeli forces have been conducting a sweeping operation in Gaza City that has destroyed blocks of residential neighborhoods and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. Many Gazans, exhausted and traumatized by the war, say they hope Hamas makes whatever concessions necessary to reach a deal with Israel.
“Get us out of this situation in any way possible, and quickly,” said Abdelkarim al-Harazin, a doctor who recently fled Gaza City for the south of the enclave. “We’ve been through this before, a million times, thinking that it might happen — only to get burned.”
Earlier this week, Mr. Trump released a 20-point-plan to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza and to end Israel’s deadly military campaign there. At least 20 living hostages and the bodies of around 25 others are still believed to be held in Gaza.
Under the plan, Hamas would free the remaining hostages and hand over its weapons, and end its rule in Gaza. Israeli forces would gradually withdraw from Gaza and allow an internationally supervised Palestinian administration to assume responsibility for public services there.
Hamas submitted its response to Mr. Trump’s proposal late Friday night. In a statement, the group said it agreed to release all the remaining hostages according to the terms laid out in the plan. That would mean the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel, along with 1,700 others detained since the start of the war. The bodies of 15 Gazans would be exchanged for each dead Israeli captive.
But Hamas also said it wanted certain conditions on the ground to facilitate the exchange and that this would require further negotiations. The group did not address whether it would be willing to disarm, as Mr. Trump’s plan envisions.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, said on Friday that “security measures” were needed to free the living hostages and he suggested that locating the bodies of others would take time.
“Some have been buried, some are in areas under the occupation’s control, and some — as a result of the destruction and leveling that took place — need to be looked into,” he told Al Araby TV, a Qatar-based broadcaster.
On Saturday in Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered in one of the largest protests that Israel has seen in months calling for a deal to secure the release of the hostages. There was an unusual atmosphere of optimism, undercut with fears that a deal won’t come through.
“The people of Israel want this deal,” Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker is held hostage in Gaza, called out to the crowd. Addressing Mr. Netanyahu, she said, “For you they may be just hostages, but for me he is my child.”
David M. Halbfinger, Isabel Kershner, Shawn McCreesh and Ronen Bergman contributed reporting.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
Natan Odenheimer is a Times reporter in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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