Hamas members and Palestinians watch as Israeli hostages are handed over to Red Cross representatives in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Feb. 15, 2025. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/DPA via Reuters)
In an interview with Israeli public broadcaster Kan, U.S. President Donald Trump’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler claimed that during his direct talks with Hamas, the terror group proposed a five-to-ten year truce with Israel, which would see the group disarm and disengage from political governance.
In the interview, Boehler was asked, “In these last few weeks, you’ve been meeting face-to-face with Hamas officials trying to extend the ceasefire. Is there any progress?”
Acknowledging that progress is happening in the form of “baby steps,” Boehler said that Hamas had suggested “relatively reasonable things and workable things.”
“They suggested exchanging all prisoners, so all of our hostages now for some number of prisoner swap. We didn’t get into that,” Boehler told Kan Reshet Bet. “And they suggested a five-year to ten-year truce where Hamas would lay down all weapons and where the United States would help, as well as other countries, ensure that there’s no tunnels. There’s nothing taken on the military side and that Hamas is not involved in politics going forward. And I thought that was not a bad first offer.”
However, in an article in Qatari news site Al-Aarbi al-Jadeed on Monday morning, a Hamas spokesperson denied Boehler’s claim of Hamas disarming.
The article stated that senior Hamas officials told Boehler that they would not give up all of the organization’s weapons, even in the event of the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The hostage envoy also dismissed Israeli claims that Israel was unaware of the talks between Hamas and the U.S.
“My actions were coordinated with Israel, even though maybe there were some that said they weren’t,” Boehler stated. “They were coordinated.”
He also said that his job “isn’t to move Israel aside.”
“So I want to be additive to what happens in Israel and not take away,” he remarked.
However, Boehler acknowledged that some in Israel doubted the sincerity of his actions, worried that he was only interested in securing the release of American hostages.
“I think what worries the families of the Israeli hostages is that you will take care of the American hostages first and that the others, well they can continue praying,” the Kan host stated.
“Well, the president the United States was very clear, very clear in his Truth social tweet that it was all hostages,” Boehler responded. “And I will note that in the West Wing just a few days ago he was inspired by many hostages that were not American hostages; they were Israeli hostages.”
The hostage envoy affirmed that he is working to get every hostage home.
“He is a man of his word. It’s one reason why I work for this president,” Boehler stated. “And he has instructed me to get every single person home. And I will continue to try to do that until everyone is home.”
Asked about discrepancies between Hamas statements indicating progress in the negotiations, countered by Israeli denials, Boehler remarked, “It sounds a little bit like a game. That sounds like politics to me.”
He also affirmed that the U.S. is planning to attend the negotiations in Qatar.
“We’ll be there. My colleague, Steve Witkoff, who’s an unbelievable negotiator and we work very closely together, he’s going to be there.”
Boehler also called the foreign policy team of Witkoff, himself, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio an “A-team.”
“This is the A-team, the foreign policy A-team that President Trump put together,” he stated. “And so you’ve got a lot of folks that are there that are very, very talented people. And I’d be surprised if there’s not some movement…if I want to be optimistic, I would think [within] weeks.”
