Top US, Qatari and Turkish officials joined the third day of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Egypt, as cautious optimism grew that a lasting truce to end the two-year war in Gaza could be on the horizon.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US president Donald Trump, arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh where talks were being held. Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and head of Turkish intelligence Ibrahim Kalin also attended the Egyptian coastal resort to participate in the talks.
The presence of the senior officials from the three countries brought further hope that this round of talks could result in a deal, even as significant gaps remained between the two sides.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that negotiations had made “a lot of headway” and that a ceasefire would be declared if they succeed.
Hamas has said that it is seeking international guarantees that Israel will not resume bombing Gaza after the group releases all the remaining hostages, living and dead, that it captured on 7 October 2023 – its main leverage over Israel.
In mid-March, Israel unilaterally ended a ceasefire when it resumed fighting in Gaza and declined to move to a second stage of talks which would have led to an end to the war.
In an interview with Egyptian TV on Wednesday, the leader of the Palestinian negotiating delegation and senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said that the group needed firm guarantees from Trump that the war “will not return”.
Though Hamas has agreed to three parts of Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza – namely the release of all hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, surrendering power in the strip and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza – the rest of the deal still needs to be discussed.
Among the points that still need to be negotiated are the demands that Hamas disarm, how and when Israeli troops withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and the makeup of an international technocratic body that is meant to govern Gaza.
Logistics of a hostage-prisoner swap still need to be ironed out. Hamas had given mediators a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants to see released from Israeli prisons, said Taher al–Nounou, a senior Hamas official.
Rightwing members of the Israeli government have put pressure on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to allow the release of certain prisoners, such as Marwan Barghouti, who has frequently been touted as a future Palestinian political leader, according to Israeli media.
Far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that Netanyahu should seek “complete victory” over Hamas in Gaza, in remarks he made while praying at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem – a disputed area that contains Islam’s third-holiest site and is Judaism’s holiest place – on Wednesday. Hamas called his visit a “deliberate provocation”.
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Joining the talks are militant groups allied to Hamas including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which holds some Israeli hostages as Hamas tries to present a unified Palestinian front.
Both Israel and Hamas have said that they are committed to making sure talks succeed. Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday that Israel was “cautiously optimistic” about the discussions. Hamas has also said it will operate in good faith to ensure talks result in a permanent ceasefire.
In separate statements, however, both parties have given conflicting visions on how they see the long-term prospects of the ceasefire. Netanyahu has said on two occasions that the Israeli army will remain in Gaza, in apparent contradiction to the Trump plan.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas did not mention disarmament, while in interviews with Arabic media, some officials have rejected the idea of laying down the group’s arms entirely.
The Trump administration and its Arab allies, as well as regional players such as Turkey, have thrown their weight behind the current round of peace talks in an effort to quickly push through a truce that has evaded negotiators for two years. Trump has said that he wants Israeli hostages to be released this week and has threatened Hamas with “total obliteration” if it does not agree to the deal.
Trump’s plan calls for an immediate end to fighting in Gaza, the release of all 48 hostages held by Hamas – 20 of whom are believed to still be alive – the disarmament of Hamas and its relinquishing of governing power in the Gaza Strip to an international transitional authority headed by Trump. In return, Israel would gradually withdraw to a buffer zone at the edges of the Strip and return nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees.
Humanitarian aid would also surge in a bid to alleviate the famine that consumes parts of Gaza as a result of Israel’s blockade, as well as reconstruction funds to the destroyed Strip.
In conjunction with the talks in Egypt, US secretary of state Marco Rubio is set to attend a ministerial meeting in Paris with his counterparts involved in the peace process to discuss the day after in Gaza, according to Reuters.
The meeting will discuss the potential international stabilisation force in Gaza, the international body meant to rule over the territory, the disarmament of Hamas, as well as humanitarian aid and reconstruction, the Associated Press reported.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar criticised the ministerial meeting for not including the country, describing it as being “concocted behind Israel’s back”. Saar said that he hoped the meeting would not jeopardise the release of hostages.
Israel continued to strike Gaza as negotiations progressed, despite the US calling for a ceasefire on Friday. At least 10 people were killed by Israeli strikes and fire over the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza health authority.
At least 67,183 Palestinians were killed and nearly 170,000 wounded by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza over the last two years. Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage on 7 October 2023.
A growing number of bodies, including the UN commission of inquiry, have concluded that Israel has committed genocide in its two-year war in Gaza. Israel denies the claim, saying it has only acted in self-defence.
