Mediators step up Gaza ceasefire effort but obstacles remain

Sticking points include hostage-prisoner swap as flurry of contacts among stakeholders signals re-energised bid to reach a deal

A woman stands beside a building targeted by an Israeli air strike near the Nuseirat refugee in central Gaza on Thursday. AFP

Mediators are stepping up efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage and prisoner swap, but differences between Israel and Hamas over the number of hostages to be initially released by the militant group could delay or derail the process, sources familiar with the negotiations told The National on Thursday.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Wednesday there was now a chance for a new deal that would allow the return of all the hostages, including US citizens, according to a statement from Mr Katz's office.

However, a Western diplomat in the region told Reuters that a deal was taking shape that would likely involve the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities.

US President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan held talks on Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He will later visit Egypt and Qatar, close US allies who have worked with Washington to broker another ceasefire after a brief truce ended a year ago.

The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, visited Doha on Wednesday to discuss the latest truce effort with Qatari officials, according to the sources. Neither Israel nor Qatar have commented on the visit.

Lending a sense of urgency to the process has been US president-elect Donald Trump's warning to Hamas that the hostages must be released before he takes office on January 20 or there will be “hell to pay”.

The Israeli military says Hamas and allied militant groups in Gaza are holding about 100 Israeli and other hostages, including 40 who it believes have died while in captivity. Earlier this week, the sources said Hamas had presented Egyptian mediators with a list of the hostages.

The latest truce proposal provides for a halt in fighting of up 60 days during which a limited number of hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, the sources said.

During the truce, significant amounts humanitarian assistance would be allowed into the battered enclave and negotiations would begin on a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Medicines and health care would also be provided to the hostages during the truce.

The sources said the proposal includes a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Salah Al Din corridor, a narrow strip of land that runs the length of the Egypt-Gaza border on the Palestinian side. Israeli troops captured the area in May, which Egypt views as a violation of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and subsequent accords.

The sources said Hamas has signalled its readiness to release up to 30 hostages during the initial truce, including five US nationals believed to be among the captives. It wants to free one hostage every 48 hours, a tactic designed to ensure Israel's compliance with the deal's provisions, the sources said.

Israel wants all 30 hostages to be from among those still alive and include the US nationals, the sources said. It has also been non-committal about withdrawing from the Salah Al Din corridor, also known as the Philadelphi Corridor, which includes the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Mr Trump's designated hostage envoy Adam Boehler has said he too was involved in the current drive to get a deal, having spoken already to Mr Biden and to Mr Netanyahu.

Citing Mr Trump's threat of “hell to pay”, Mr Boehler told Israel's Channel 13 news last week: “I would appeal to those people that have taken hostages: Make your best deal now. Make it now because every day that passes, it is going to get harder and harder and more Hamas lives will be lost.”

Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump's designated Middle East envoy, met separately late last month with Mr Netanyahu and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, also the Gulf state's foreign minister and chief mediator in the Gaza talks, according to a source briefed on his contacts.

Israel's military chief and the head of the Shin Bet internal security service were in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss postwar Gaza border crossings and administration, according to three Israeli security sources cited by Reuters. There was no word from Cairo on their visit.

A Palestinian official close to the talks and familiar with the positions of all the parties involved described what he called “a fever of negotiations” with ideas emerging on all sides, including from mediators in Egypt and Qatar.

He said Hamas was willing to show some flexibility should there be guarantees Israel would not resume the fighting. Israel has repeatedly asserted that it will not stop the war in Gaza until Hamas is stripped of its military and governing capabilities and all the hostages are freed.

The Gaza war was sparked by an attack in October last year by Hamas and its allies on southern Israeli communities, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.

The attack prompted a relentless military campaign by Israel that has to date killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians and injured twice as many, according to figures from Gaza health authorities. Israel's military offensive has also displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents and reduced large areas tgo rubble.