Media: Israel Has Made Concessions For A Truce With Hamas
- 17.07.2025, 7:43
A peace deal on the Gaza Strip could be reached as soon as the next few days.
A peace deal on the Gaza Strip could be reached as soon as the next few days, as Israel has stopped insisting on maintaining control over several areas of the enclave.
This is reported by The Times of Israel.
An Israeli official said an agreement between Israel and Hamas is "more likely than not."
Two other sources who have been involved in mediation efforts said the window for a deal to be reached in the coming days opened after Israel agreed to significantly reduce its military presence in the enclave for the duration of the 60-day truce under discussion.
"I believe an agreement is achievable. It is not easy. Negotiations with Hamas are not easy and I can't give an exact timeframe, but it is achievable," the Israeli official said.
His comments came with some optimism. For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump was scheduled to receive the prime minister of Qatar on Wednesday, where talks are underway, and to have dinner with him to move toward a deal.
A few hours before the dinner, Trump said at the White House, "We have good news on Gaza," without going into details.
Trump's Middle East special envoy Steve Whitkoff, who also attended the White House event, told reporters that the Doha talks were going well.
In the meantime, two sources told the publication that Israel has agreed to drop its more maximalist demands over the scope of a partial withdrawal from Gaza.
They said it was thanks to Whitkoff's pressure that the new maps Israel presented no longer show an IDF presence in the Morag "corridor" that separates the towns of Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Also, Israel agreed to reduce its presence in Rafah, where the country said it intends to establish a controversial "humanitarian city" to which Gaza's population will be relocated. And entry checks and a ban on leaving were expected there.
Arab diplomat said Israel's renewed proposal to withdraw from Gaza was likely to make it more difficult to implement Israel's "humanitarian city" plan.
A source who was involved in the talks said the mediators are currently meeting with Hamas representatives in Doha to review the latest Israeli maps.
They are reportedly broadly in line with Hamas' previous demand that the IDF withdraw to positions it held before the previous ceasefire began to collapse on March 2.
In the meantime, Hamas has signaled that it is willing to compromise on Israel's demand that it commit to a permanent cease-fire in exchange for Trump's personal assurances that the truce will remain in place until the sides reach a deal.
Mediators believe that thanks to a compromise by Hamas on a permanent ceasefire and a compromise by Israel on the scale of the withdrawal - the most difficult hurdles in the Doha talks have been overcome.
Arab diplomat said, however, that the sides have yet to reach agreements on mechanisms for distributing humanitarian aid, as well as on the number and identities of Palestinian prisoners to be released during the two-month truce in exchange for 10 live Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 killed. Hamas currently holds 50 hostages, including the bodies of at least 28 dead, whose deaths have been confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces.
Other views and what Israel is facing
Earlier on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the talks were at a "critical stage" and that if an agreement to release the hostages was not reached soon, then the military would intensify and expand the offensive against Hamas.
"We will know in the coming days whether there is a deal or not," he told troops during a visit to Gaza.
Zamir added that the IDF would "enter additional areas and continue the operations we have conducted so far."
"(Israel - ed.) is not tied to war. War itself is not an ideology, but a tool. There may be attempts, perhaps even serious ones, by various parties to achieve (a diplomatic solution - ed). We have not reached the goal yet, it's a bit premature, but such attempts can be made," the Israeli official continued.
He also said Israel remains committed to ending Hamas' control of Gaza and releasing the remaining hostages.
He added that there remains disagreement in Israel's security cabinet over the concessions to be made in the Doha talks.
"Some members of the cabinet said that we should not retreat from the territory we captured in Operation Gideon's Chariots. I told them, 'Then tell them you don't want a deal,'" the official said."