Gaza ceasefire negotiations will resume this week as mediation efforts to pause the nine-month-old war in the Palestinian enclave gain momentum. Hamas and Israel have started to show some flexibility after months of deadlock, sources told The National on Sunday.
However, they cautioned that the flexibility shown by the two warring sides was conditional and there was still a significant amount of work to successfully secure a deal.
“We are working now towards a framework agreement that’s more like a rough draft,” a source said.
“To have a detailed agreement will take a month.”
The negotiations will initially involve mid to high-level mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar as well as representatives from Israel and Hamas, according to sources.
These will be held simultaneously in Cairo and Doha this week, they said.
The negotiations will at a later stage bring together top mediators – CIA director William Burns, his Egyptian counterpart Abbas Kamel and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani – as well as Mossad chief David Barnea and senior Hamas officials led by political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
It has not been decided whether top-level negotiations will be in Cairo or Doha.
The chances of clinching a deal significantly increased when Hamas last week softened its conditions, dropping its insistence that Israel must commit in writing to a permanent ceasefire at the end of the first phase of the agreement.
Instead, the group now wants guarantees in writing from the three mediators – the US and its allies Qatar and Egypt – that talks to reach a permanent ceasefire will commence as soon as the first, six-week phase begins.
Israel has given a “conditional nod” to Hamas’s new positions, hinging its final position on the satisfaction of its demands on the timetable and details of the release of hostages. Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel will be freed in exchange for the hostages, mirroring a week-long exchange in November.
They said a significant gap remained between the two sides on the government and security of Gaza after the war ended with Israel committed to the eradication of Hamas and refusing to fully withdraw from the enclave.
Hamas, on the other hand, continues to insist on a postwar role in the running of the coastal enclave and has refused the deployment of an international force, as has been demanded by Israel.
US proposals to end the war were unveiled by President Joe Biden in May, with Hamas adding its positions.
The only truce reached in the Gaza war lasted for a week in November when Hamas released about 100 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
The phased US proposals include a “full and complete” six-week ceasefire that would see the release of several hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
During these 42 days, Israeli forces would also withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in the north.
Hamas, Israel and the mediators would also negotiate the terms of the second phase that could see the release of the remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers. Israel would free additional Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The third phase would see the return of any remaining hostages, including those killed, and the start of a years-long reconstruction project.
A source in Israel's negotiating team told Reuters on Friday there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable.
However, Hamas continues to insist that Israel must fully withdraw from Gaza, a demand that Israel has consistently dismissed as delusional or unrealistic.
Israel has in the past rejected Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire, arguing the war will continue until its forces have completely dismantled the group’s military and governing capabilities and all the hostages are freed.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians with more than twice as many injured. It has displaced the majority of the strip’s 2.3 million residents and reduced to rubble most of its built-up areas.
Many in the coastal enclave are facing hunger with famine looming over its northern part.
The war began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel last October that killed about 1,200 people. The militants also took about 240 people hostage.
