(Image Credit: Israeli Government)
Herman Gill and Drop Site News Middle East Research Fellow Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report.
On May 25, Palestinian negotiators from Hamas believed they were on the verge of a deal to end the Gaza genocide. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Hamas was told, had approved a term sheet that reflected Hamas’s major demands, and indicated the Trump administration would work to have Israel accept them. But less than a week later, Witkoff came back with a dramatically altered version, crafted with Israel, that did not explicitly guarantee key provisions for ending Israel’s war or the withdrawal of its forces. This new agreement made between Israel and the U.S. was subsequently touted in the press as Trump’s plan to end the war on Gaza and the onus was now on Hamas to accept it.
Yesterday, Drop Site published the full version of the “term sheet” crafted by Israel and the U.S. Today, we are publishing the May 25 version agreed to by Hamas, revealing the details of what Israel is trying to strongarm Hamas into agreeing to on the global stage.
The terms provisionally agreed to by Hamas largely return to the previous ceasefire deal signed on January 17 and violated by Israel in early March—meaning a major withdrawal of Israeli forces, the delivery of hundreds of trucks a day of food, medicine, fuel and other aid. The agreement would also mandate that Hamas give up governing power in Gaza, an independent Palestinian committee would be created to take charge, and reconstruction would begin immediately.
Most significantly, the U.S. would guarantee that a ceasefire would be held, and the delivery of aid uninterrupted, until a long term resolution to the war was in place. "The United States and the mediators commit to ensuring the continuation of negotiations, maintaining a cessation of hostilities and the entry of aid, until a permanent ceasefire agreement is reached," Hamas’s term sheet says. In the Israeli version, that guarantee is completely gone, replaced by a U.S.-backed ceasefire only during the 60-day period of the proposed agreement.
