October 7 mastermind and newly appointed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who has impeded previous peace talks, is now asking for a cease-fire deal in Gaza, mediators say.
Sinwar — who had called on his Palestinian terror group to continue the war until Israel is destroyed — has asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to help push for an end to the fighting as hostage negotiations continue, a source familiar with the talks told CNN.
Sinwar has previously been called a “dead man walking” by Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that the war will not end until Hamas’ destruction.
But Netanyahu is facing growing pressure to accept a cease-fire deal and end the 10-month war, with the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, the main group advocating with the families of those kidnapped by Hamas, pushing for an immediate deal.
”A deal is the only path to bring all hostages home. Time is running out,” the group recently said in a statement.
“The hostages have no more to spare. A deal must be signed now,” it added.
Despite being adamantly against a cease-fire deal that would end the war but allow Hamas to remain in Gaza, Netanyahu is seen as being as ready as he’ll ever be to make a deal, sources said.
But nothing is set in stone, they said.
“Nobody knows what Bibi wants,” an Israeli source told CNN of the prime minister.
While Netanyahu is facing backlash over the war, he is also facing pressure from his own coalition partners to stick to the offensive.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slammed the current US-backed cease-fire push as a “surrender,” urging Netanyahu not to falter.
“I call on the prime minister not to fall into this trap,” Smotrich said Friday.
The deal on the table calls for an immediate halt to the fighting in Gaza and for Hamas and Israel to set the groundwork for a hostage exchange that would see the remaining 120 captives free.
Hamas and Israeli negotiators have disagreed on similar deals in the past because the Palestinians say they have lacked wording calling for a permanent end to the war.
Israel has vowed to carry on its war in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. The Jewish state is retaliating for the terrorists’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.
It remains to be seen if the conversations will change once the negotiating teams congregate in Cairo in the coming days.
