The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas submitted to the mediators in the indirect negotiations with Israel a counter-proposal for the conclusion of an agreement in order to declare a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and release Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, the newspaper reported on Sunday in its digital edition. Haaretz.

It foresees the release of hostages and prisoners after a 42-day ceasefire, the Israeli newspaper said, citing Palestinian and Arab sources.

Hamas has reportedly rejected a US proposal that would have included the release of 40 hostages and 900 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a six-week ceasefire.

According to Haaretz, Hamas is counter-proposing that the Israeli army cease operations in the first phase for six weeks and withdraw from urban centers. He also wants to see the return of displaced persons to the northern Gaza Strip. During this period, the Palestinian Islamist movement will search for the hostages and verify their condition.

In the second phase, the Israeli army will withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip and only then will the exchange of hostages for prisoners begin. For every Israeli civilian, 30 Palestinian prisoners and 50 military personnel should be released, including some 30 serving life sentences, according to the proposal.

The hostages who are dead—civilian and military—will be handed over to Israeli authorities in the third and final phase, after the siege of the Gaza Strip is lifted and reconstruction begins, always at Hamas’s counterproposal.

The Israeli authorities calculate that a little less than a hundred hostages are being held alive in the Palestinian enclave, while at least 34 others are dead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure from members of his far-right government not to make what they say are too many concessions to Hamas and to launch a full-scale ground offensive in Rafah, despite international pressure to cancel the operation. The Israeli government intends to continue the war after a possible truce ends to “wipe out” Hamas, a movement in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007.