The agreement calls for a pause in the fighting and for Hamas to free 50 of the captives it seized in its Oct. 7 raid on Israel. Hamas said Israel would release 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Since 2006, Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist, and Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official, maintained a secret back channel between Gaza and Israel. Then Oct. 7 happened.
The Israeli military said troops had uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft underneath the Al-Shifa Hospital complex, as well as a vehicle on the hospital grounds packed with weapons.
Under the proposed agreement, Hamas would release 50 women and children abducted during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks for roughly the same number of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons.