Israeli security and political officials were due to arrive in Qatar on Sunday for high-level talks on a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal that would see the release of hostages in the final days of President Biden’s term and before Donald J. Trump took office.
Biden administration officials have pushed for a deal to be part of the outgoing president’s legacy, and Mr. Trump has warned that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the hostages before his inauguration in January. 20.
Negotiations at a lower level have been underway in recent weeks after months of impasse.
Although some progress has been made, disagreements remain on several key points, including the timing and scale of Israel’s redeployments and withdrawal from Gaza and its desire to end the war, according to several officials and a Palestinian close to of the file. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are being held in secret and they were not authorized to discuss details publicly.
Representatives of the outgoing and incoming US presidents have cooperated on the issue, the Biden administration said, while Qatar and Egypt are serving as mediators between Israel and Hamas.
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s planned Middle East envoy, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Saturday. On Friday, Mr. Witkoff was in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani for talks focused on efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office announced Saturday evening that he had discussed the issue with Israeli security chiefs and with negotiators from the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations. He also asked top Israeli negotiators – including David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence agency – to leave for Qatar in a bid to reach a deal, Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
Disagreements between Israel and Hamas remain over the fundamental question of the permanence of the ceasefire, with Mr Netanyahu still reluctant to declare an end to the war under a three-phase deal presented by Mr Biden last May. .
Israel insists on a vaguer formula which leaves room for ambiguity, according to the Palestinian close to the matter and two Israeli officials. Another official familiar with the matter said the Americans were supposed to provide guarantees to mediators that the United States would work to end the war, although Israel had not agreed to any exact wording.
Hamas is also demanding detailed maps from Israel showing where it will withdraw, but Israel has not provided them, according to officials and Palestinians familiar with the matter. They added that disagreements remain over the timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphia Corridor, a strip of land adjoining the Gaza-Egypt border.
Nearly 100 hostages captured during the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, out of around 250 captured. Israel estimates that at least a third of the remaining hostages are dead.
Both Israel and Hamas have shown signs of willingness to resolve outstanding issues, as pressure mounts from the United States and the Israeli public. Last week, Hamas representatives said the group had approved an Israeli list of 34 hostages to be released in the first step of a deal.
But Israel said last week that it had received no information from Hamas regarding the status of the hostages on the list, which includes those it considers the most vulnerable and urgent cases: women and children, men over 50 and several sick or injured hostages. .
Israel demanded from Hamas a list of hostages still alive. Without that, Israeli officials say, there can be no agreement on how many Palestinian prisoners Israel would be willing to release in exchange. As of Sunday morning, Israel had not received a list of living hostages, according to one of the officials familiar with the matter.
The body of one of the hostages named on the list of 34 – Youssef Ziyadne, 53, an Arab citizen of Israel – was found last week by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza along with the remains of his son, Hamza Ziyadne, who was also captured in the 2023 attack.
The Israeli army brought the remains of the two men back to Israel for burial.
