Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived at Sharm el-Sheikh for the discussions.
Hamas says it's seeking firm guarantees from Trump and mediators that Israel won't resume its military campaign in the Palestinian territory after the militant group releases all the remaining captives.
All sides have expressed optimism for a deal to end the two-year war, with tens of thousands of Palestinians killed and most of the Gaza Strip destroyed. But key parts of the peace plan still haven't been pinned down — including requirements that Hamas disarm, the timing and extent of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and the creation of an international body to run Gaza after Hamas steps down from power.
Qatar’s prime minister and top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, was heading to Sharm el-Sheikh to join the talks.
From Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top adviser, Ron Dermer, is also joining, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to speak to the media.
Representatives from fringe militant groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is known to also hold an unknown number of Israeli captives, are scheduled to arrive later Wednesday in Sharm el-Sheikh, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media. Their attendance underscores the aim of the talks to encompass all Palestinian groups.
As Qatari, Egyptian, and U.S. mediators met with both sides in preliminary talks on Wednesday morning, a senior Hamas official, Taher Nounou, said that the group has exchanged a list of Palestinian prisoners it seeks to release in return for Israeli captives under the deal’s terms.
Trump’s peace plan
The plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and release of the 48 captives that militants in Gaza still hold since Oct. 7, 2023.
It envisages Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza after Hamas disarms, and an international security force being put in place. The territory would be placed under international governance, with Trump and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Wednesday in televised comments that the negotiations so far “were very encouraging.”
Netanyahu has accepted Trump’s plan. His office said Tuesday that Israel was “cautiously optimistic,” framing the talks as technical negotiations over a plan that both sides already had approved.
In a statement Tuesday, Hamas reiterated its longstanding demands for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but said nothing about disarmament, a step it has long resisted. Hamas has also spoken against the idea of international rule, though it has agreed it will have no role in governing post-war Gaza.
Speaking in Sharm el-Sheikh, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s top negotiator, told Egypt’s Qahera TV that the group wanted solid guarantees from Trump and mediators that the war “will not return.” It appeared to be his first public appearance since an Israeli strike targeting him and other top Hamas leaders in Qatar last month killed six people, including his son and office manager.
In January, the two sides had a ceasefire that brought the release of some Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Under the agreement — which Trump and Witkoff played a major role in brokering — the two sides were then supposed to enter negotiations over a long-term truce, an Israeli withdrawal, and a full captive release.
But Israel broke the ceasefire in March, resuming its campaign of bombardment and offensives, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas for the remaining captive releases.
Past rounds of negotiations have frequently fallen apart over the same obstacle, with Hamas demanding assurances of the war's end and Netanyahu vowing to keep fighting until the group is destroyed. The Trump plan attempts to resolve all the issues at once by laying out Hamas disarmament and a post-war scenario for governing the territory with provisions for a major reconstruction campaign.
Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh said that a prisoners’ exchange can happen “in the next few days,” removing any pretext for Israel to mount any further attacks. But he warned in a televised statement to Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV that Israel and its allies shouldn’t expect the Palestinians to “succumb to their conditions and dictation after all the sacrifices.”
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said that the fact that the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, as well as the intelligence service heads of both Turkey and Egypt, are taking part in the talks “gives the talks a strong boost toward achieving positive results” while “narrowing Netanyahu’s room for manoeuvre to continue the aggression and sabotage the negotiations.”
Praying for a deal
A growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said that Israel’s war on Gaza amounts to genocide. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that the bodies of 10 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 61 wounded, it said in its daily report.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. The United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
In the Gaza Strip, where much of the territory lies in ruins, Palestinians are desperate for a breakthrough. Thousands fleeing Israel’s latest ground offensive in northern Gaza and Gaza City have set up makeshift tents along the beach in the central part of the territory, sometimes using blankets for shelter.
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