Summary
- Bishara Bahbah calls for immediate return to talks.
- Warns war deepens human toll, risks hostages' lives.
- Mediator between Hamas and the US administration in recent months.
- Helped secure release of former hostage Edan Alexander.
- Urges both sides to reach ceasefire and agreement soon.
Prolonged military action, he said, would only increase the death toll and endanger the lives of the hostages.
"Israel is in a situation where it does not want to be. The Israeli public does not want to see Israeli soldiers in Gaza being killed. And the situation for Palestinians is untenable,"
Bahbah told The Jerusalem Post.
According to Bahbah, military activities have devolved into "a useless activity" that "could endanger the hostages" and fail to resolve the crisis, marking the end of the conflict's current phase.
Hamas has been negotiating a deal with Qatar and mediators in recent days that would end the war and free all hostages. When asked if he believes that such a settlement can be reached, Bahbah emphasized,
"If negotiations for a comprehensive deal are going to take place while there is military action, and while people are getting killed, that’s not a good situation."
Bahbah, who has participated in several mediation sessions in recent months, admitted that his experience has shown that months might pass during discussions for an agreement to free all of the hostages. But he thinks a complete settlement is possible.
Reflecting on the recent talks, Bahbah said the sides were "close to a partial deal," even though Hamas’s initial response was rejected by Israel.
"It was subject to negotiations. The number of Palestinian prisoners being released is almost irrelevant when it comes to people getting killed and being starved,"
he said, adding that Hamas understood this reality.
"We could have reached a deal, but within days, the negotiations were cut off."
Bahbah’s message to Hamas has been blunt:
"Every day you delay, we have 80 to 100 Palestinians being killed—sometimes more. If we had three weeks of delay, we’re talking about 1,500 to 2,000 people being killed. That is a large number while we’re wasting time negotiating 100 meters there or an additional five prisoners here. To me, these issues are irrelevant. What we need to do is stop the killing and come to an agreement."
What impact did Bahbah’s ceasefire proposal have on international mediators’ strategies?
Dr. Bishara Bahbah’s ceasefire proposal had a notable but complex impact on international mediators’ strategies. His plan, promoted around May 2025, called for a 70-day truce combined with the phased release of hostages.
However, it faced rejection from senior Israeli officials who believed the proposal contained Hamas conditions that undermined Israel’s war objectives and complicated hostage-release efforts.
Despite this, Bahbah remained a key intermediary in indirect communication channels between the US administration and Hamas, notably facilitating some humanitarian aid commitments and hostage release arrangements through back channels rather than formal negotiations.