7/20/2025–|Last update: 17:27 (Mecca time)
The American hostage envoy Adam Bouler said he was more optimistic than today regarding a new hostage agreement in Gaza.
The CNN network quoted Buller as saying that it was time for Hamas to release the hostages, stressing that there is a new feeling of the ability to accomplish something.
He stressed that the Israelis want to accomplish something, but Hamas is very stubborn, adding that many things were presented to Hamas, and that he wants them to take action, otherwise Israel will have to act.
He said that it is related to small details, and that he advises Hamas to accept the offer of the agreement provided by Israel and the United States.
Israeli estimates
On the other hand, Israeli reports stated that the ongoing negotiations on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip may be crowned with an agreement within two weeks, and confirmed that the negotiations deal for the first time the subject of the end of the war.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted officials that reaching an agreement on Gaza is possible within two weeks and that the US envoy is expected to reach the Middle East Steve Wittf in Doha within days.
The newspaper stated that Hamas expressed reservations about the number of Palestinian prisoners who would be released for each Israeli detainee, but the Qatari mediation contributed to bringing the views closer.
An Arab diplomat said in statements to the broadcasting organization that “the gaps regarding the map of the deployment of the Israeli forces have shrunk,” and that the remainder “is just limited obstacles.”
He considered that the last meeting between US President Donald Trump and the Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani was “very important to the progress of talks”, and that Washington is “satisfied with developments until now.”
War end talks
Meanwhile, a political source familiar with the negotiations told Haaretz that Israel was taking place for the first time with Hamas with the aim of ending the war.
The source pointed out that the negotiations differ from the previous deals that dealt with the exchange of prisoners and the detainees, as this time actually touched on the issue of ending the war, which makes it intertwined and very complex.
The source emphasized that the Israeli delegation in the negotiations “has a wide margin and sufficient flexibility to reach an agreement without prejudice to Israel’s security needs.”
This coincided with continuous pressure from Israeli prisoners’ families on the government to conclude a deal, as thousands demonstrated in the hostage field in the center of Tel Aviv, in the context of the weekly protests calling for a comprehensive deal that restores all the prisoners at once.
The demonstrations circulated several cities, in which thousands of Israelis participated, and appealed to Ainaf Tasnjawker, the mother of a prisoner detained in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not to allow the collapse of Doha negotiations, and that the Israeli team be given a mandate to end the war.
He also invited him to stop selectivity and seek to restore all hostages. Families are calling on Netanyahu to stop thwarting deals, killing opportunities and moving with the American president to end the war and return the hostages.
New maps
On the other hand, a Palestinian source told Anatolia that Hamas received from the mediators new maps showing Israeli control areas in the Gaza Strip, and began studying.
The source familiar with the course of the negotiations in Doha said that Hamas “received maps from the mediators showing the continued control of the occupation army over large areas of the Gaza Strip, including most of the city of Beit Hanoun (north), half of the city of Rafah, (two towns) of Khuza’a and Aban in (Khan Yunus Governorate) (south), and large parts of the Shujaiya neighborhood (in Gaza City).”
He added that the movement “began studying the proposal in its leadership frameworks, and consulting with the Palestinian factions on how to deal with it.”
The previous maps, which were presented to Hamas during the current negotiations, indicate full control of the Israeli army on Beit Hanoun, large parts of Beit Lahia in the north of the Strip, the entire city of Rafah, large parts of Khan Yunis, and large border areas, which the movement rejected.
Hamas insists on returning to the withdrawal areas stipulated in the understanding of the January 2025 agreement, in which the Israeli army withdrew for a depth ranging between 390 and 1100 meters.
For more than 21 months, several rounds of indirect negotiations were held between Israel and Hamas, to stop the war and exchange prisoners.
During this period, two partial agreements were reached, the first in November 2023, and the second in January 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is required for international justice, escaped the completion of the last agreement, and resumed the war of extermination on Gaza on March 18.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has launched a group of genocide in Gaza, which has left more than 199,000 Palestinians between a martyr and a wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and the famine that has tasted many.