Negotiators gather for Gaza talks under Trump plan, swift deal unlikely
The negotiations on President Donald Trump's plan were set to begin on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war,.
Officials from Israel and Hamas were in an Egyptian resort on Monday to launch talks that the US hopes will bring a halt to the war in Gaza and a release of hostages, despite contentious issues such as disarmament of the Palestinian group.
The negotiations on President Donald Trump's plan were set to begin on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war, when fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and left the majority of 2.2 million Gazans homeless and hungry in the rubble of the enclave destroyed by relentless bombardment.
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Two Israeli sources said the Israeli negotiators had arrived in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the talks, focused on freeing hostages, part of the US president's 20-point blueprint for ending the conflict. Hamas officials had already arrived earlier in the day.
WARINESS ABOUT PROSPECTS OF BREAKTHROUGH
"If there is a deal, then we survive. If there isn't, it is like we have been sentenced to death," said Gharam Mohammad, 20, displaced along with her family in central Gaza.
An official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks kicking off on Monday would not be quick, lasting at least a few days. Prompt agreement is unlikely as the goal is to clinch a comprehensive deal with all details worked out before the ceasefire can begin to be implemented, the official said.
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 - led by the most far-right government in its history - might ditch negotiations once it recovered the hostages.
The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies Mossad and Shin Bet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch.
However, Israel's chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was only expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials. Spokespeople for Dermer and the prime minister did not immediately comment.
The Hamas delegation is led by the group's exiled Gaza leader, Khalil Al-Hayya, whose visit to Egypt was the first since he survived an Israeli airstrike that killed his son in Doha, the Qatari capital.
Negotiators from Hamas will seek clarity on the mechanism to achieve a swap of remaining hostages - both alive and dead - for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, as well as an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and a ceasefire, according to a statement put out by the Islamist group late on Sunday.
A thorny issue is likely to be the Israeli demand, echoed in Trump's plan, that Hamas disarm, a Hamas source told Reuters. The group has insisted it will not disarm unless Israel ends its occupation and a Palestinian state is created.
Netanyahu, whose country has become internationally isolated over its devastation of Gaza, says a Palestinian state will never transpire. Britain, France and several other Western countries recognised Palestinian independence last month.
Israel intercepted a flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza over the weekend. On Monday it deported scores of detained activists from the flotilla, including the most prominent, Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
HAMAS, ISRAEL AGREE TO FUNDAMENTALS OF PLAN
Hamas and Israel have agreed to the fundamentals of Trump's plan, though not key details. The US president has been optimistic, after winning backing from Arab and Western states.
"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.
Trump's plan is the most advanced effort yet to halt the war, the longest, most destructive and deadliest in the generations-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel has eased up on its attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours that preceded the Gaza talks, with the enclave's health ministry reporting a retreat in the relentless daily death toll.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the talks were more promising than previous iterations as "for the first time in two years, it is not just about a ceasefire, but about a viable political solution".
Trump, who brokered normalisation deals with Israel and several Arab states during his first term in 2020, has said his Gaza plan could usher in a wider peace across the Middle East and transform the region.
The first phase of the talks deals with the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel. There are 48 remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Hamas on Friday approved a hostage release and some other elements of Trump's plan but sidestepped trickier points, including calls for the group to disarm and yield power in Gaza, which it seized in 2007 after a brief civil war with rivals.
Domestically, Netanyahu is caught between growing pressure to end the war — from hostage families and a war-weary public — and demands from ultra-nationalist members of his coalition who insist there must be no let-up in efforts to annihilate Hamas.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that ceasing the military campaign would be a "grave mistake". He and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have threatened to bring down Netanyahu's government if the war ends.
