Release of hostages and powers for the PA: The Gazan proposal for a deal that someone made sure we didn't recognize

Amidst American and Arab efforts to advance a hostage deal and end the war, a senior Hamas official spoke today (Saturday) with the Al-Hadath channel and revealed new details. The Hamas official stated that the American initiative discussed last week in the United States has not yet been presented to Hamas.

In addition, the senior official stated that "civilian and academic figures in Gaza already created a blueprint two weeks ago for ending the war in Gaza in cooperation with local authorities." He claimed that the Gaza initiative in question included a blueprint for the release of hostages in exchange for a ceasefire. The senior official also noted that within the framework of the initiative, Hamas: "is ready to hand over the Gaza file to the Arab League and the Arab-Israeli Committee."

In addition, the mayor of Khan Yunis also spoke with "Al Hadath" and elaborated on the same initiative: "The initiative calls for the establishment of a committee to manage Gaza and an Arab force to temporarily support it." He noted that "the proposal calls for the establishment of a delegation to conduct negotiations with Israel, headed by the Palestinian Authority."

The mayor of Khan Yunis noted in an interview that while the Gaza proposal was ready, "those responsible withdrew from signing it" and clarified: "Our initiative for Gaza was halted with the presentation of the Trump plan."

As a reminder, over the past week, on the sidelines of the UN in New York, a new proposal for a deal was discussed on behalf of Trump in cooperation with leaders in the Arab world. The Trump administration's 21-point peace plan for Gaza calls for the release of all hostages within 48 hours of signing, in exchange for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, according to a CNN report based on a source familiar with the details. As a reminder, this proposal was placed on the table of Trump's meeting with Arab leaders a few days ago, and according to reports, it is expected to be one of the topics of conversation at the Trump-Netanyahu meeting on Monday.

President Donald Trump has expressed optimism about resolving the conflict, saying yesterday that they are "very close" to an agreement. Arab leaders are reportedly broadly supportive of the proposal, although they do not think it is perfect.