Efforts to reach a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war appeared to be making progress Thursday amid reports that terror group Hamas could back the proposal, which includes the release of 28 hostages and negotiations on ending the war that has been grinding on since October 2023.

Various outlets reported similar terms for the deal, which would see 10 living and 18 deceased hostages released in stages over a 60-day ceasefire period, with Hamas said to agree to forgo public hostage release ceremonies and Israel said to agree to hold off on resuming military operations so long as talks on ending the war were ongoing.

Israel is believed to be under heavy US pressure to clinch a ceasefire deal ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump next week.

Sources have indicated in recent days that the sides had shown flexibility on all issues but remained stuck on the question of ending the war, with Israel insisting that it be able to resume its offensive against Hamas and the terror group demanding that any deal permanently end the fighting, which began with its onslaught in Israel on October 7, 2023.

“The indications we’re getting are people are ready,” a diplomat briefed on the talks told The Associated Press, claiming that there was now a “big opportunity” to reach an agreement.

According to The New York Times, the 28 hostages would be released in five groups over the 60-day period; an earlier version of the proposal would have seen them released in the first week of the halt.

An Egyptian official involved in the ceasefire talks told the AP that the proposal calls for Hamas to release eight living hostages on the first day of the ceasefire and two more on the final day. Israeli reports indicated that the deceased hostages would be returned in three groups in between. Were this process completed, this would leave 22 hostages still held in Gaza, at least 10 of them believed to be alive.

Hamas also agreed to not hold public propaganda ceremonies in which it parades released hostages, the New York Times reported, citing an Israeli and Palestinian source. Hamas staged celebratory events for handovers during a previous truce in January and February, angering Israel and the US and drawing condemnation from the UN human rights chief.

Reports have indicated that the hostages will be released in return for Israel setting free Palestinian security prisoners it is holding and a boost in humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli official characterized the agreement as a 60-day deal that would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid to the territory.

The mediators and the US would provide assurances about talks on ending the war, but Israel is not committing to ending the war as part of this proposal, said the official on condition of anonymity.

According to Saudi news outlet Asharq al-Awsat, the proposal contains assurances from the mediators that both sides will not resume fighting as long as negotiations to end the war are ongoing.

The report, citing a source with knowledge of the developments, said Hamas was satisfied with the guarantees included in the ceasefire proposal.

The group was expected to deliver its response to the proposed framework on Friday, Asharq reported. The Egyptian official said Hamas will have to review the proposal with other factions before submitting an official response.

Terror groups are holding 50 hostages, alive and dead, who were abducted from southern Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists burst into the country. The attack also killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, triggering the war.

Another source close to Hamas claimed to Asharq that the new proposal presented to the group did not contain any substantial changes from one submitted in May by US mediator Steve Witkoff.

The diplomat who spoke to the AP said Trump’s harsh talk toward Israel regarding maintaining a ceasefire with Iran had “given a bit of confidence to Hamas” that the US will guarantee any future deal and prevent a return to fighting.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster and Channel 12 both reported that if Hamas gives a positive response, an Israeli negotiation team will be ready to head at short notice to Doha for mediated talks aimed at wrapping up the final points of contention.

Among those is the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza during the halt in fighting.

According to Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, the proposal calls for Israeli troops to move back to positions they held during the last ceasefire. At the time, the Israel Defense Forces remained positioned along the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egyptian border, but had not yet established the so-called Morag Corridor, an east-west route cutting off the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, and which Israel had so far insisted it maintain control of in order to eradicate Hamas from the southern area of the enclave.

The newspaper also reported that aid would be supplied “uninterrupted” through the United Nations.

The Egyptian official said both sides had agreed that the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent would lead aid operations and that the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would also continue to operate.

One point that seems to have been ironed out is the question of who will administer Gaza.

Israel has said Hamas cannot run the territory, and the Egyptian official said the proposal would instead put Gaza under a group of Palestinians without political affiliations known as the Community Support Committee once a ceasefire is reached.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu vowed that “there will be no Hamas… no Hamastan,” following the 60-day ceasefire plan. Israel has demanded the group give up power and demilitarize.

In an apparent indication of changes coming, the UK’s Times newspaper reported that senior Hamas officials abroad were being told by Qatari mediators to hand in their personal weapons, a symbolic move meant as a nod to Israel’s demand for Hamas’s disarmament, which the terror group has thus far rejected.

It said that among the senior Hamas officials instructed to hand over their weapons are lead negotiator and senior politburo official Khalil al-Hayya; the Istanbul-based leader of Hamas in the West Bank, Zaher Jabarin; and the chair of Hamas’s Shura Council, Muhammad Ismail Darwish.

Channel 12, without citing a source, reported that among the Palestinian security prisoners who could be released in exchange for the hostages are those Israel had refused to set free in the past. It also said that an agreement on a complete end to the war would include the release of all remaining hostages.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told reporters in Estonia that there are “positive signs,” the New York Times reported.

Israel’s goal, Sa’ar said, is “to begin proximity talks as soon as possible,” referring to mediated negotiations on the details of a ceasefire deal.

Trump has made it clear to Israel that he wants to see the Israel-Hamas war end soon. While he has been supportive of Netanyahu, Trump had tough words for Israel in the opening hours of last week’s ceasefire with Iran, when he pressured Israel to scale back its response to an Iranian missile attack. That could help persuade Hamas to embrace a deal.

Coalition opposition

On Wednesday night, Israel’s major TV networks reported that the government had agreed to engage in talks on ending the war, marking a major shift for the first time.

Netanyahu faces opposition within his own coalition to reaching a ceasefire that would end the war.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who quit the government over the previous ceasefire, but returned when the fighting resumed in March, told Kan Thursday that he believes the deal on the table is akin to “surrender.”

“We must not stop the war without victory,” Ben Gvir said. “What do you think will happen if we stop the war now? That Hamas will hand out flowers?”

He urged Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party to unite against the deal, a day after he was first reported to reach out to the fellow hardliner on the issue.

“I won’t allow this reckless deal to happen,” he said.

On Tuesday, Army Radio reported that the governing coalition was considering inviting Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party to join the government if Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism parties quit over the ceasefire deal.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.