US-led hostage deal mediators drafting final 'take it or leave it' offer to be presented later this week

A final proposal for a hostage release and truce deal between Hamas and Israel is being drafted by the mediating parties, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, the Washington Post and Axios reported Monday.

While the outline was drawn up before the IDF recovered the bodies of six deceased hostages from Gaza on Sunday, including U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, it “only adds to the urgency of the matter. You can’t negotiate forever,” a source told the Post.

U.S. President Joe Biden is considering presenting the plan later this week, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told families of American hostages during a meeting on Sunday, according to Axios citing two sources with direct knowledge.

The current round of negotiations was described with great optimism by the mediators, especially from the United States, but talks have become stuck on the issue of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza-Egypt border, which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects. Hamas has categorically ruled out any Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar plan to tell both parties they can either “take or leave” what they are calling a final offer.

If no agreement is reached, the U.S. might even consider ending its mediation efforts altogether, an anonymous senior administration official told the Post.

The U.S. presented a “bridging proposal” several weeks ago, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating that Netanyahu was on board and it was now up to Hamas to accept it.

Despite Hamas publicly rejecting the offer, lower-level talks continued behind the scenes, focusing on negotiations between Israel and Egypt over the Philadelphi Corridor that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border.

In their meeting with hostage families, Sullivan and Biden’s top Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, reportedly said there was “significant progress” in negotiations last week regarding the lists of hostages and Palestinian terrorists who stand to be released in a potential first-stage of a hostage deal.

In a symbolic gesture on Thursday evening, Israel's political-security cabinet approved the details of a plan to maintain an IDF presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, following the U.S. approval of corresponding maps.

On Monday, Israel’s Histadrut Labor Union declared a general strike in protest over the government’s “delaying a deal for the return of the hostages for political reasons.”

Following large protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Sunday night, Hamas released a statement on Al Jazeera hardening its position in the negotiations.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior figure in Hamas' political wing, told the Qatari TV network that "without the Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi route, the Netzarim corridor and the Rafah crossing, there will be no agreement.” 

According to Axios, Biden and his national security team are scheduled to meet on Monday to finalize the American strategy for the last effort to secure an agreement.