Staff member: Hostage release and Hamas disarmament central to ending fighting

A staff member said that the release of all hostages and the disarmament of Hamas would be the clearest path to ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas, and that negotiators have discussed a 60-day cease-fire mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

The staff member said negotiators envisioned “humanitarian aid through international agencies” resuming during such a pause, but warned implementation is difficult: “But now you've gotta have talks about how do you implement that. And and that's where this has fallen apart in the past. We're hopeful that'll work out.”

On the core bargaining positions, the staff member said, “The sticking point would be on the Hamas side. I mean, Hamas basically wants Israel to withdraw completely and allow them to go back to being Hamas. Obviously, the Israelis aren't gonna agree to that.” The staff member added that absent a full hostage release and Hamas disarmament, the two sides have only been able to reach understandings through mediators such as Qatar and Egypt.

The staff member also quoted the White House position in summary: “The president's been clear he wants to see a cease fire. And we've invested a lot of time and energy.” He added that private and public actors were working on the issue, saying that Steve Witkoff “works every hour every single day on this topic.”

Observers and negotiators described the proposed 60-day pause as including some humanitarian access through international agencies, but the staff member emphasized that the details of how to implement those provisions — who secures aid deliveries, how detainees are exchanged and how any disarmament would be verified — remain unresolved. Past pauses have collapsed, the staff member said, when parties disagreed on those implementation steps.

No formal agreement or timetable was announced during the exchange; the staff member described the remarks as a summary of ongoing mediation efforts and expressed hope that talks will succeed.