Gaza talks in Qatar off to 'positive' start with US mediators showing greater understanding of Hamas

Militant group says it is waiting for 'new steps' towards implementing the second phase of the deal

Internally displaced Palestinians jostle for food handouts from a charity kitchen, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. EPA

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Talks to break the stand-off between Hamas and Israel over the Gaza ceasefire got off to a positive start, with US mediators showing a "deeper understanding" of the Palestinian group after unprecedented meetings with its leaders, sources told The National on Wednesday.

The latest round of negotiations mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar began in Doha on Tuesday night with preliminary sideline meetings, but substantial discussions among all parties did not begin until Wednesday, they said, with the White House's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in attendance.

Mr Witkoff, a real estate magnate known to be close to US President Donald Trump, is credited with brokering the Gaza ceasefire deal that took hold on January 19 and ended on March 1. His success contrasted with more than a year of fruitless efforts by the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators to pause the Gaza war.

"The negotiations in Doha are very positive and different from previous rounds," said one of the sources. "The Americans have gained a deeper understanding of Hamas, its situation and the cards it holds in contrast what they had previously learnt through third parties," they added, alluding to the knowledge gleaned by the US after a series of meetings in recent weeks with Hamas leaders in Qatar.

The sources said the dynamics of Gaza negotiations and contacts behind closed doors have in recent weeks expanded beyond merely maintaining a truce in the Palestinian territory and now touch on the future of post-war Gaza, including how it is governed, security and the fate of Hamas, as well as its arsenal. The shift, they said, has been boosted by direct negotiations between Hamas leaders and the US envoy for hostages Adam Boehler.

Displaced Palestinians take shelter in a tent camp set up at the damaged Palestine Stadium in Gaza City. Reuters

The sources this week revealed Mr Boehler had offered Hamas a conditional 10 to 15-year truce in Gaza as part of wide-ranging discussions between the two sides. They said Hamas welcomed the offer.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, sought to belittle the significance of Mr Boehler's meetings, saying they were a "one-off situation" that had not "borne fruit".

However, the sources on Wednesday said further meetings between Hamas and US officials were in the pipeline and that discussions which had already taken place were being taken up by negotiators and mediators in Qatar this week.

"The conversation now is so detailed that it touches on the names of the technocrats who will be selected to run post-war Gaza, as well as the future of Hamas's arsenal and who is the best candidate to succeed [Palestinian Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas," said another of the sources.

"They think a truce of up to 15 years can change things on the ground in a very big way, enough to create the nucleus of an independent Palestinian state," they said.

A family prepares an iftar meal in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in central Gaza. AFP

The talks in Doha coincided with an announcement by Egypt on Wednesday that an international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza – which Cairo is sponsoring with the UN and the PA – will take place at the end of next month. A precise date has yet to be announced.

Separately, technical talks about the first, six-month stage of Egypt's $53 billion plan to rebuild the coastal enclave will commence next week in Cairo.

The first phase of the plan, adopted at an Arab summit on March 4, provides for defusing unexploded ordnance left by the war, as well as removing the rubble of destroyed buildings and the supply of 200,000 tents and caravans to house Palestinians who lost their homes in the fighting. It also entails the restoration of an estimated 60,000 partially damaged homes.

The war in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that killed about 1,200 people. The assailants also took about 250 others hostages, of whom 59 – with 24 now presumed alive and 35 confirmed dead, according to Israel's military – remain in captivity.

The attack drew a relentless bombing campaign by Israel that has killed more than 48,500, mostly women and children, the Health Ministry in Gaza says. The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents has also been displaced, with large parts of the enclave's built-up areas, including hospitals, universities, schools and homes, laid to waste.

The implementation of the reconstruction plan, however, hinges on reaching a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as securing the required funds from bilateral and multilateral donors such as Gulf Arab states and the EU.

Palestinian women confort each other after loved ones were killed in an Israeli air strike south of Gaza city on Tuesday. AFP

The intensifying talks on the reconstruction of Gaza and Israel's halt of electricity supply and deliveries of humanitarian aid to the territory have added significance to the current Doha negotiations.

Hamas has offered an upbeat assessment of the negotiations, with Hazem Qassem, its spokesman in Gaza, saying the group is dealing with them positively and responsibly.

“We hope this round will yield tangible progress towards the start of the second phase, paving the way for an end to the aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation [Israel] from the Gaza Strip and the completion of a prisoner exchange deal,” he told The National.

Another Hamas spokesman, Abdul Latif Al Qanou, said on Wednesday the group was awaiting "new steps from the Doha negotiations to move towards implementing the second phase, resuming aid deliveries and ensuring an end to the war”.

The six-week, first phase of the truce deal ended on March 1 without agreement on subsequent stages meant to secure a lasting end to the war. The deadlock over the deal's second phase arose when Israel said it wanted to extend the first phase but Hamas remained committed to negotiations on an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

While the fate of the ceasefire remains uncertain, both sides have largely refrained from resuming all-out hostilities. However, in recent days, Israel has conducted daily strikes, supposedly targeting militants in Gaza.

On Tuesday, an Israeli air strike killed four men, including two brothers, south of Gaza city, according to the territory's civil defence agency. The Israeli military said its air force had struck “several terrorists engaged in suspicious activity posing a threat to IDF [Israeli] troops”.

With additional reporting from Nagham Mohanna and Amr Mostafa