How Israel and Witkoff Are Trying to Strong-Arm Hamas Into a Deal That Does Not End the Genocide
A point-by-point breakdown of how the U.S. and Israel changed the deal Hamas said it made with Trump's envoys
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.
Key Differences
Here are some of the key differences between what Hamas agreed to on May 25 and what the U.S. and Israel crafted over the past week:
1. Duration of Ceasefire
What Hamas Agreed to: Hamas initially proposed a 90-day ceasefire, then said it would accept a 70-day version, and later signaled willingness to accept a 60-day truce, with a clear path to extend the truce as long as negotiations continued.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: 60-day ceasefire with no automatic extension. Talks and the truce may only continue if both sides agree and are “negotiating in good faith.”
2. Presidential Guarantee
What Hamas Agreed to: Trump would personally guarantee the ceasefire and commit to enforcing it, along with ensuring “Israel’s return to the status quo as it was prior to March 2, 2025,” when Israel abandoned the original ceasefire deal.. It states that Trump “insists that negotiations during the ceasefire period will lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict.”
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: Trump is mentioned as announcing the agreement and that the president “guarantees Israel’s adherence to the ceasefire” for 60 days. There is no enforcement mechanism and no binding guarantee of Israeli military withdrawal.
In a section titled Presidential Support, the draft states: “The President is serious about the parties’ adherence to the ceasefire agreement and insists that the negotiations during the temporary ceasefire period, if successfully concluded with an agreement between the parties, would lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict.”
3. Terms on Exchange of Captives
What Hamas Agreed to: 10 living and 16 deceased Israeli captives released in two phases—5 living on day 1, and the remaining 5 living on day 90. While it was not in the text of the agreement, Hamas also sought two weeks to locate burial sites.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: 10 living and 18 deceased captives would be released in the first week—5 living and 9 deceased on day 1, and the rest on day 7. By the tenth day of the agreement, Hamas would provide information on the status of the remaining captives, living and dead.
4. Military Withdrawal
What Hamas Agreed to: Israeli withdrawal to the March 2 lines during the truce period, with President Trump guaranteeing Israel’s commitment to this. Full Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip to take place immediately after a permanent ceasefire is declared and before the final exchange of captives and bodies.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: Only limited “redeployments” inside Gaza after each captive release. No commitment to full withdrawal; no return to pre-March 2 positions.
5. Humanitarian Aid
What Hamas Agreed to: Immediate, unrestricted aid flow under the January 17 humanitarian protocol. This would mean food, fuel, medicine and construction equipment, according to Hamas officials.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: Aid would enter “immediately” and the UN and Red Crescent would be involved with distribution. No mention of fuel, construction materials, or a total lifting of the Gaza blockade. No clarity on the future role of the controversial U.S. and Israeli-backed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”
6. Surveillance and Military Activity
What Hamas Agreed to: Complete cessation of all Israeli military activities, including a total ban on aerial and reconnaissance operations, for 90 days with no exceptions. Palestinian resistance groups would also halt all armed operations.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: Only “offensive” Israeli military operations would stop. Israeli surveillance and aerial activity would pause for only 10–12 hours per day, with full surveillance continuing the rest of the time.
7. Role of U.S. Envoy
What Hamas Agreed to: Steve Witkoff would travel to Doha, publicly sign the agreement, and shake hands with Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya. Witkoff would also lead the negotiations with the assistance of U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Palestinian-American Trump supporter and unofficial envoy Bishara Bahbah.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: Witkoff will “preside” over negotiations. No mention of a signing ceremony or handshake.
8. Governance and Reconstruction
What Hamas Agreed to: Immediate handover of Gaza’s administration to an independent Palestinian technocratic committee, with full authority over governance and reconstruction, which would begin immediately.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: No mention of Gaza governance and reconstruction. The “day after” may be discussed in future talks, but is not guaranteed.
9. Continued Ceasefire Commitment
What Hamas Agreed to: The U.S., Qatar, and Egypt would guarantee continued ceasefire and aid flow as long as negotiations toward a permanent resolution were ongoing.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: No such guarantee. The initial ceasefire, it says, “may be extended under conditions and for a duration to be agreed upon by the parties so long as the parties are negotiating in good faith.”
10. Israeli Strategy and Intentions
What Hamas Agreed to: The U.S. would pressure Israel to end the war and support a lasting peace.
What the U.S. and Israel Crafted: Israel has already accepted the new version—openly stating it will resume war after the captives are freed. Netanyahu said this week: “We will continue fighting until Hamas is destroyed.”
Negotiations and the Negotiators
Hamas and Israel both have surrogates acting on their behalf to appeal to Witkoff in the ongoing negotiations. On one side, Hamas officials—including Al Hayya, Basem Naim, and Osama Hamdan—are working closely with Bisharah Bahbah, a Palestinian-American and Trump supporter. Meanwhile, Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, works with Netanyahu as lead negotiator for Israeli interests in the talks. Both parties are beholden to Witkoff in their respective attempts to secure the U.S.’s “presidential guarantee” through Trump.
For weeks, Hamas had been engaged in direct talks with Bahbah. Born in Jerusalem, Bahbah holds a PhD from Harvard and has taught at the university and led several think tanks and policy institutes with a focus on Palestinian and broader Middle East issues. He was a lifelong Democrat until May 2024, when he declared his support for Trump in protest of the Biden administration’s facilitation of Israel’s war against Gaza. “Arab and Muslim Americans are sick and tired of Genocide Joe. He needs to be out of the White House. He is arming Israel to the teeth, killing and wounding almost 2% of Gaza’s population,” Bahbah tweeted at the time. “Trump promises an end to the war in Gaza.” Bahbah would go on to form Arab Americans for Trump and campaigned for his election, focusing on winning over voters in cities with large Arab populations.
Unlike most within Trump’s orbit, Bahbah has publicly criticized the president, perhaps most sharply after Trump announced on February 4 that he wanted to seize Gaza as a U.S. territory and convert it into a Middle East Riviera. “Gaza is for the Palestinians, it is no one else’s land,” Bahbah wrote on the social media platform X on April 8. “Neither the US nor Israel should treat it as a real estate property. Period.”
Bahbah was a well-known figure in Palestine and had served as a foreign policy advisor to Yasser Arafat, the longtime chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Bahbah was also known for his opposition to Hamas’s governance in Gaza and his advocacy for a “two-state solution.” In April, a longtime member of Hamas reached out to Bahbah with a message to pass on to Trump: the Islamic resistance movement was interested in making a direct deal for the release of U.S. citizen and Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who was taken captive by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023. The next month, on May 12, as a result of Bahbah’s intervention, Alexander was escorted by the Red Cross out of Gaza.
Hamas would subsequently accuse the Trump administration of violating the agreement brokered by Bahbah and certified by Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Hamas said that Witkoff had personally promised that, two days after Alexander’s release, the U.S. would compel Israel to lift its deadly full-spectrum blockade, imposed on March 2, which prevented any food, medicine, or other essential supplies from entering Gaza. Hamas says it was told that Trump would also publicly call for an immediate ceasefire and for robust negotiations to begin for a permanent end to the war. “They didn't violate the deal,” Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Drop Site. “They threw it in the trash.”
Despite this, Hamas remained in contact with Bahbah and viewed him as capable of understanding Hamas’s position and conveying it in an accurate way to Witkoff and other U.S. officials. As Trump set off for his tour of the Gulf nations of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, there were a flurry of stories indicating that Trump was growing tired of Israel’s war in Gaza and wanted to make a deal. On several occasions, Trump acknowledged the starvation spreading in Gaza.
Trump’s trip came and went, and there were no major announcements. Behind the scenes, Hamas continued its discussions with Bahbah and, through him, with Witkoff. In these talks, according to Hamas sources, the U.S. laid out for Hamas the general terms of an agreement that would be acceptable to Trump. Hamas drafted a document based on those discussions and handed it to Bahbah. According to sources from Hamas, the U.S. position was positive and Hamas officials say they were told the next step would be convincing Israel to move forward.
On May 26, Hamas announced that it had reached an “understanding” with the U.S. on terms for a temporary ceasefire that would eventually lead to an end to the war and the release of all Israeli captives held in Gaza. In a statement, Hamas described it as “a general framework that achieves a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, the flow of aid, and the appointment of a professional committee to manage the Gaza Strip's affairs immediately after the agreement is announced.”
What happened next caught Hamas off guard. It was no surprise that Israeli officials rushed to tell journalists in the Hebrew press that the deal was a Hamas propaganda operation: “The eagerness with which it was killed in Israel indicated a deep fear that Washington would accept it and even try to impose it,” as the Israeli publication YNet described the reaction in Tel Aviv. But then Witkoff publicly denounced Hamas, saying, “What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, as Trump spoke to a throng of reporters in the Oval Office, he summoned Witkoff from the back of the room and asked him to give an update on the Gaza negotiations. Witkoff made no mention of the agreement Hamas said it had reached with him three days earlier, but he told reporters, “I think we are on the precipice of sending out a new term sheet,” adding, “I have some very good feelings about getting to a long term resolution—a temporary ceasefire and a long-term, peaceful resolution of that conflict.”
According to accounts in the Israeli press, after Witkoff sent the original term sheet to Israel—the one Hamas believed would form the basis for an agreement to end the war—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right hand man, Ron Dermer, met with Witkoff and other U.S. officials to craft an alternative document. Before it was sent to Hamas for review, Israel told the U.S. it would publicly accept its terms.
Drop Site published that document in full on Thursday. Its terms are vague and leave open the clear possibility that Israel could relaunch its war against Gaza after a 60-day truce. Under the agreement, Hamas would be required to release half of the Israeli captives it holds in the first week, and there would be no guarantee that the deal would lead to a clear end to the war or the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. It also does not provide any specifics over how much aid would be allowed into Gaza or where Israeli forces would “reposition” during the initial ceasefire.
Hamas officials say they are continuing to deliberate over its terms, but say the deal “seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation.” Naim said it “fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people, among them an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.” He added, “Despite this, and in full awareness of the gravity of the ongoing genocide against our people, Hamas leadership is currently undertaking a thorough and responsible review of the new proposal.”
Here is the full English text of the agreement Hamas said it had accepted:
25 May 2025
Framework for a Permanent Ceasefire Agreement in the Gaza Strip
A 90-day ceasefire.
Ten Israeli hostages and (16) bodies will be released in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners, as follows: (5 live hostages on the first day of this agreement, 5 live hostages on the day 90, with the mechanisms and schedule for the handing over of the bodies to be agreed upon during the 90-day period.)
President Trump will guarantee Israel's commitment to the ceasefire during the agreed-upon 90-day period and Israel's return to the status quo as it was prior to March 2, 2025.
Aid will be delivered to Gaza immediately upon Hamas's acceptance of a ceasefire agreement, in accordance with the humanitarian protocol agreed upon on January 17, 2025.
Aid will not be restricted during the ceasefire period.
All Israeli military activities will cease immediately upon the announcement of this agreement. No Israeli aerial or reconnaissance activity will be permitted over Gaza during these 90 days.
Witkoff will travel to Doha to sign the agreement with Dr. Khalil [Al Hayya, Hamas’s lead negotiator], and they will meet and shake hands.
Steve Witkoff will lead the negotiations with the assistance of [U.S. hostage envoy Adam] Boehler and Bahbah.
President Trump will personally announce the ceasefire agreement and thank all those who contributed to its achievement, especially Hamas.
The President is serious about ensuring Israel's commitment to the ceasefire agreement and insists that negotiations during the ceasefire period will lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict.
During the 90-day ceasefire period, the following points will be discussed:
a. After reaching an agreement on the exchange of the remaining hostages and bodies, and before the handover procedures begin, a permanent ceasefire will be declared and Israeli forces will withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip.
b. An independent committee of technocrats will begin administering all affairs of the Gaza Strip, with full authority and responsibilities, immediately upon implementation of this agreement.
c. The reconstruction of the Gaza Strip will begin.
d. A long-term cessation of mutual (hostile) military operations between both parties will be established, guaranteed by the mediators (the United States, Egypt, and Qatar).
As long as military operations by both sides remain halted, the United States is committed to reaching an agreement and wants all parties to come to the negotiating table until a permanent resolution to the conflict and a peace agreement are reached.
After the 90-day truce, 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.
• Guarantors of the agreement (the United States, Egypt, Qatar)
Zionism everywhere must be destroyed, it’s a cancer on humanity and it’s infiltrated every government across the world. Hamas has a right to resist under the law and the Palestinians deserve their country back.
If you trust anything that comes out of the mouth of Bibi, Witkoff, or Trump, then you are dumber than a box of rocks. And written on a piece of paper makes it no more valuable.