A tent camp in which displaced Palestinians, who fled northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, shelter, in the central Gaza Strip, on Monday. REUTERS
Israel and Palestinian resistance movement Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind President Donald Trump’s plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into Gaza, the closest they have come to an end to fighting.
The plan also has the backing of Arab and Western states. Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal, in what Washington hails as the closest the sides have yet come to ending the fighting.
Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
“I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,” Trump said in a social media post.
But both sides are seeking clarifications of crucial details, including over issues that have wrecked all previous attempts to end the war and could defy any quick resolution.
Trump has told Israel to suspend its bombing of Gaza for the talks. Gaza residents said Israel had scaled back its offensive substantially, although it had not halted it altogether.
Egyptian state TV reported that the talks had begun at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
Egyptian sources said Hamas was seeking clarification of several details, including guarantees that Israel would follow through with promises to withdraw its troops from Gaza once the militants give up their leverage by freeing their hostages.
Inside Israel there is clamour for an end to the war to bring home hostages, although right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet oppose any halt to fighting.
Though Trump says he wants a deal quickly, an official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks would require at least a few days.
An official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Trump’s deadline to send all hostages back within 72 hours could be impossible to meet in the case of bodies of dead hostages, some of which would need to be located and recovered from burial sites scattered across the battlefield.
A Palestinian official close to the talks was sceptical about prospects of a breakthrough given deep mutual mistrust, saying Hamas and other Palestinian factions were worried that Israel might ditch negotiations once it recovered the hostages.
The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies Mossad and Shin Bet, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch. Israel’s chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are also expected in Egypt.
The Hamas delegation is led by the group’s exiled Gaza leader, Khalil al-Hayya, who survived an Israeli airstrike that killed his son in Doha, the Qatari capital, a month ago.
Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt’s state intelligence, said “Egyptian and Qatari mediators are working with both sides to establish a mechanism” for the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Behind closed doors and under tight security, negotiators will speak through mediators shuttling back and forth.
According to the Palestinian source, the initial hostage-prisoner exchange will “require several days, depending on field conditions related to Israeli withdrawals, the cessation of bombardment and the suspension of all types of air operations”.
Negotiations will look to “determine the date of a temporary truce”, a Hamas official said, as well as create conditions for a first phase of the plan, in which 47 hostages held in Gaza are to be released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.
Mirjana Spoljaric, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has coordinated previous exchanges, said its teams were standing at the ready “to help bring hostages and detainees back to their families”.
On Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised Trump’s plan saying it offered “the right path to lasting peace and stability”.
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