A senior Hamas official told CNN that the U.S. response to the movement’s proposal, delivered to U.S. President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy Steve Wietkoff, came as a "shock" to them.

The official explained that the proposal included three main points: agreement to release the hostages and a 60-day ceasefire as outlined in the American plan, on the condition that there would be U.S. guarantees to continue negotiations and reach a permanent ceasefire, with no resumption of fighting after the deadline. It also included the delivery of humanitarian aid through UN channels, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the positions they held before March 2, before the resumption of Israeli military operations.

CNN quoted another source described as "informed" of the content of the proposal, stating that these three points were indeed presented and recently discussed with Bishara Bahbah, the intermediary between Hamas and the U.S. administration, before being sent to Wietkoff.

However, the Hamas official indicated that things changed drastically after Wietkoff’s meeting with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in Washington this week. He said:
“We were shocked because we were told two or three times by Bishara Bahbah that he had no objection to the proposal, then we were surprised that the new document did not include any of our demands... It’s an Israeli paper.”

The official stressed:
“We are ready to return all the detainees in one day, but we just want a guarantee that the war will not resume. We did not find that guarantee in the latest paper. They want to continue the war, and we want to stop it.”