(Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel has accepted a new ceasefire proposal presented by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

Channel 12, Kann, I24 and Haaretz were among the Israeli media outlets that reported the claim.

Netanyahu’s office later issued a statement calling Channel 12 a “propaganda channel” and accused one of its reporters of trying to “smuggle” a recording device into the prime minister’s office ahead of his meeting with families of hostages.

The statement did not issue a direct denial of the reports.

There was no immediate response from Channel 12.

A Palestinian official familiar with the mediation efforts told Reuters “the discussions are continuing with the mediators and Hamas hasn’t handed its response yet.”

Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group, at war with Israel since October 2023, had earlier said that it received the new proposal from mediators and was studying it.

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(Reporting by Yomna Ehab, Nidal Al Mughrabi and Alexander Cornwell; editing by Mark Heinrich)