Report: U.S. Urges Israel to Pause ‘Full-Scale’ Operation Against Hamas in Hopes of Facilitating Hostage Talks
IDF Chief Eyal Zamir on ongoing operation Gideon’s Chariots: “We are intensifying our activity in accordance with the established plan.”
The U.S. reportedly urged Israel to pause an impending ‘full-scale military operation’ against Hamas in a bid to facilitate further hostage talks, despite the Gaza-based terrorist rebuffing the latest ceasefire plan. Washington asked, “Israel to delay major ground invasion of Gaza amid hostage deal talks,” The Jerusalem Post, reportedly exclusively.
The diplomatic push from Washington comes amid Hamas’s refusal to accept a new ceasefire plan presented by President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
“Israel has agreed to the American proposal for the return of the hostages, which is based on the Witkoff framework,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Tuesday. “This proposal was recently conveyed to Hamas via the mediators, even though it is continuing to cling to its refusal.”
With Hamas sticking to its refusal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday, recalled the entire Israeli hostage negotiating team from Doha, Qatar.
The Jerusalem Post reports:
The United States has asked Israel in recent days to delay its full-scale military operation in Gaza as part of efforts to exhaust negotiations for a hostage deal, two sources familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
The request included two key components: Delay the full-scale operation in Gaza and enable ongoing negotiations to proceed in parallel with the military operation.
While Israel is currently conducting significant operations in Gaza, officials in Jerusalem have made it clear that once the full-scale ground operation begins, Israel will not withdraw from areas it enters, even as part of a potential deal. Moreover, the possibility of a ceasefire as part of any agreement would become more complicated. (…)
Despite the ongoing military activity and as a result of Israeli statements, the US has asked Israel to allow the current negotiations for a potential hostage deal to continue. “If there’s an opportunity for a temporary ceasefire to bring back hostages, we are prepared for that,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last Wednesday.
The news comes as Israel’s operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ enters its fourth week. The operation, supported by five IDF divisions, was launched with the two key goals of freeing the remaining hostages and defeating Hamas as a terrorist fighting force in Gaza. Since the operation began, the Israeli military has reportedly eliminated several top operatives belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.
On Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. General Eyal Zamir, declared that the military was ramping up the offensive in Gaza. “We are intensifying our activity in accordance with the established plan,” the IDF chief said Sunday while visiting the troops in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. “Hamas is under immense pressure—it has lost most of its assets and its command and control. We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas, and dismantle its rule.”
🚨IDF Chief of Staff Zamir said during a visit to the Gaza Strip: "We are attacking with force in order to defend ourselves. From nearby Khirbet Ahzaa, they raided Nir Oz, murdered and kidnapped babies, children, women, and the elderly. We must not forget for a moment what… pic.twitter.com/6eXgkjlyLl
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) May 25, 2025
According to the military chief, Israel was engaged in a defensive war in Gaza, and it can only end with the destruction of Hamas’s terrorist fighting capabilities. “We are defending ourselves, and in order to defend ourselves—we fight. That is the main lesson of October 7th,” he explained. “We’re aiming for the decisive defeat of Hamas, and we will achieve it with determination, precision, and while ensuring the safety of our troops.”
The statement coincides with the claim made by Hamas that after three weeks of ground operation, the IDF has nearly doubled the Gaza territory under its control. “Hamas claimed on Sunday that the IDF has already taken control of 77% of the Gaza Strip, nine days after it expanded its offensive,” the Israeli news website Ynetnews reported. “Just over a month ago, Hamas said 40% of the territory was under IDF control. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel will take control of all of Gaza.”
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Comments
The total destruction of Hamas must occur if there is ever to be peace in the Middle East. No more pauses or ceasefire bare needed.
Correct. Israel should not stop until Gaza has been wiped clean of the vermin that has infested that region.
From the river to the sea, Israel needs to be completely free of its enemies, forever.
No Mercy.
From the river to the sea
The Levant shall be Hamas free.
.
An Islamofascist/Muslim terrorist-supporting Dhimmi-crat apparently disagrees with this noble, laudable and morally upright sentiment.
Not again. Why don’t these idiots understand that Hamas will never give up all the hostages because they use them as defense against being attacked.
No.
Wipe. Them. Out.
Need to tell Israel to pause operations against Hamas and attack Iran’s nuclear facilities with everything they’ve got—with full backing from the US of course.
I do not know about the US backing, if only because 1/2 or more of our Nomenklatura is on the side of Hamas. However I do not think that it is a matter of an either/or choice.
Subotai Bahadur
I get that Mr. Trump believes in the power of (tough) negotiations. He’s been successful far more often than not. I am forced to ask, however, about what’s going to be different with Hamas this time? Hamas will use every tactic to stall, delay or divert the Israeli offensive because Hamas, better than anyone, knows the result.
I’d like Mr. Trump to spring the hostages, all of them, alive and dead. But not at the price of letting Hamas remain in power.
One can’t successfully “negotiate” with Islam. They have played the LONG game for centuries and now that the West has mistakenly forgotten the past… victory is either by the West or certainly by Islam.
Europe is a prime example of the long game. Great Britain has already been lost. Germany has already been defeated. They just haven’t acknowledged it yet.
The axiom regarding the intrinsic futility of “negotiating” with Islamofascists/Muslim terrorists should be readily and painfully apparent to any person possessing a scintilla of familiarity with the 1,400-year history of the supremacist, totalitarian, belligerent, hate-filled and pathology-laden ideology of “Submission,” and, the behavior of its most fanatical adherents.
The principles of taqqiya and other general provisions allowing/encouraging deceit in interactions with non-Muslims are well-documented.
Sadly, there appear to be several prominent members of the Trump Administration — Witkoff among them — who have failed to learn this lesson.
Well past time for him to get rid of Qatar errand boy Witkoff.
Well, we’ve been here before. Waste of time negotiating with Hamas.
Hamas will simply run the clock like it did every time we let them try this ploy.
Oh, they’ll offer a great deal. One hostage for 100 of their guys.
How do you say “pound sand” in Hebrew?
תחת המזלג
“Under the fork”?! If this is an idiom I’ve never heard of it, and a web search indicates no one else has either.
You could say שק לי בתחת, “kiss me on the bottom”, or just שק לי, “kiss me”. In mixed company you could say “Songs 1:2“.
Or you could say לך לעזאזל, “Go to Hell”. (Literally “Go to Azazel”, which was a cliff some 6 miles from Jerusalem, over which the second goat in Leviticus 16 was thrown.)
Thanks, now I know the important parts of Hebrew and can learn to curse in another language.
Hebrew has very few curse words; when Israelis want to swear they resort to Arabic.
Israel’s biggest threat lies with Iran. It only takes one bomb to wipe out Israel. Iran continues to run centrifuges, thus building up an inventory of bomb grade material. It’s possible to run nuclear tests that are undetectable with seismology. I’m not going to say how even though unclassified. I hope Israel is aware of all the options. They had better be. The Europeans don’t care if Israel gets wiped out. Some Europeans might even welcome it. Much of our own US State Department is anti-Israel. Israel should not completely trust the US as some of our government is compromised by Arab money. It’s a tough mean world out there.
If Europeans think Israel got away with committing genocide but was fortunately stopped by military resistance by Hamas and diplomatic pressure from the United States and Europe there will be a European boycott of Israel that will take roughly 4-5 nanoseconds before becoming a planet Earth wide boycott of Israel
Right now the biggest threat to Israel’s future is Hamas remains in control in Gaza.
If it does Israel will not continue to exist.
Qatar purchased Trump for a reason.
IMO Israel should politely tell Trump to F off. Hamas has always been able to get a ceasefire the moment it decides to surrender. It has never wanted peace, but merely the best means to enable continuing to attack Israel now and in the future.
“… two sources familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post …”
Anonymous sources = zero credibility.
Exactly.
No
F that S
Annihilate. With extreme prejudice.
Like taking half your bottle of antibiotics, what you leave behind will grow to kill you.
Until the Arabs accept the state of Israel and to live in peace along side of Israel, this will never be over. The Arabs in Gaza are responsible for everything that has transpired and they should be made to pay for it. Israel must be allowed to win and the Arabs must be allowed to lose.
Big mistake.
It will only give Hamas time to regroup.
And, as always, strongly encourages the practice of taking hostages.
These goose-stepping, Islamofascist/Muslim terrorist Hamas thugs have had 1.5 years and ample opportunities to release all hostages and bodies. Instead, they’ve played predictably played duplicitous games, true to Muslim terrorist form.
The only message that should be sent to Hamas thugs is one of their impending, total annihilation.
Did the U.S. negotiate with Imperial Japan, in WWII? Fanatics of whatever stripe cannot be bargained with or reasoned with. You can only crush them into the ground and force them to surrender.
In return for an aircraft the United States did not need, that will cost a hundred million dollars worth of being taken apart and put back together again to make safe from Chinese and Russian spying, that will be transferred to Donald Trump at the end of the term Qatar openly purchased the survival of Hamas.
It is a disgrace.
Go back to your village idiot. They are missing you 😂😂😂
Two possibilities.
Either the anonymous report is false, or Danny is accurate describing what happened.
“It is a disgrace.”
Yes. Your post certainly is.
Well not literally transferred. Made available for his use for the rest of his life, probably. So the taxpayer gets to maintain the beast too.
The US has all of it’s people out, finally, so should stay out of it at this point. Hamas is not interested in a ceasefire as they see the political advantage of continued fighting and don’t care how many of it’s own people die. Insisting Israel stop fighting when the terrorists won’t is a stupid idea. Demanding one side let itself be attacked and slaughtered into non existence is immoral.
Israel seems to have recognized the futility of cease fires and negotiations. Even the current aid supposedly feeding starving Gazans is ridiculous as long as Hamas hasn’t surrendered. If hunger and thirst don’t prompt them to turn on Hamas, then they die—either way a path to the war ending.
Correct, it is war. It is being carried on, by Israel at least, generally in accordance with the internationally agreed rules of war. Yeah the ICJ disagreed. Who is the ICJ?
In war people die. It’s war. Trump can’t even get Russia and Ukraine to stop the genocide of white men. He can shut up and go back to worrying that Russia is spoiling his “minerals deal” with Ukraine, which would be ineffective if the relevant territories become parts of Russia.
In hopes of facilitating talks? So Hamas can offer one more hostage in exchange of 100 of their prisoners, and Israel is supposed to act grateful?
No. No more bs. Witkoff, go home. Or Qatar, which might be the same place.