US-led Gaza ceasefire negotiations 'make tangible progress'

Talks are being held simultaneously in Cairo and Doha to push for end to war, sources say

Steve Witkoff, US envoy to the Middle East, visits Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. He is to travel to Qatar for ceasefire talks. Reuters

US-led negotiations on Gaza are continuing in an effort to clinch a deal to pause the war, with the conflict high on the agenda during President Donald Trump's tour of the Middle East.

Sources told The National that negotiations were continuing simultaneously in Egypt and Qatar, long-time Washington allies who, along with the US, have been mediating an end to the war in Gaza since shortly after it broke out in October 2023.

Indicating that a deal could be within reach, chief US mediators Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler left Israel on Tuesday for Doha, where they are to join Israeli and Hamas negotiators and Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

US mediators resumed direct negotiations with Hamas in Doha last week, the first time they have done so since March, when they met face to face for the first time. Like Israel and the EU, the US designates Hamas as a terrorist group.

Pro-Palestinian activists take part in a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice, in central London. AFP

The sources said the negotiations in Doha were focused on a truce, the release of hostages held by Hamas and the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the war-devastated enclave.

They said "tangible progress" was being made, with hopes high that a deal could be reached while Mr Trump is in the region. The US President arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and is due to travel to Qatar and the UAE during his trip.

The stakeholders of the Gaza negotiations, according to the sources, were also exploring scenarios beyond a truce, looking into ways to end the conflict and start reconstruction of the devastated enclave, as well as discussing the future of Hamas.

Hamas negotiators, they added, have not budged on their long-standing demands for a "comprehensive" deal that includes the release of all 58 hostages it is still holding, in return for the freedom of hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, including high-profile figures serving lengthy jail terms.

Hamas has also demanded an end to the war and Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, where at least 52,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than twice that number injured since the war began, health authorities in the enclave have said.

The sources said US mediators were considering Hamas's demands, including giving the militant group a guarantee that negotiations would begin during a pause in the fighting – the US initially proposed a 21-day truce, but Hamas wants it to last up to 70 days – to hammer out a formula for ending the war.

Resuming relief aid

Also on the negotiating table is the number and indentity of Palestinians to be freed in return for the hostages held by Hamas, as well as the thorny question of the militant group laying down its arms and transforming itself into a political party, the officials said.

Hamas has indicated its willingness to exclude itself from governing Gaza, which it has ruled since 2007, and not take part in its reconstruction, while a panel of Palestinian technocrats, backed by an Egyptian and Jordanian-trained security force, runs the enclave until presidential and legislative elections are held.

Hamas has also signalled its readiness to lay down its arms but not surrender them as demanded by Israel, which has insisted the war will not end until Hamas has been annihilated.

In Cairo, a team of officials from Israel's Mossad spy agency, domestic intelligence group Shin Bet and the military are in talks with Egyptian officials over the logistics of resuming the flow of aid into Gaza, halted by Israel on March 2 as part of a total blockade, the sources said.

They are also in discussions to finalise details of Palestinian detainees to be released by Israel in Egypt, from which they will travel on to live in exile in other countries, including Algeria and Turkey, the sources added.

Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Reuters

The sources explained that Washington's pursuit of an end to the Gaza war does not necessarily mean it has abandoned a proposal first made by Mr Trump in January to resettle Gazans outside the enclave, before the US takes control and turns it into a glitzy beach resort. That proposal was immediately embraced by Israel.

But the sources said the administration will neither support the forcible eviction of Gaza's 2.3 million population nor oppose their voluntary departure from the enclave.

Israel has been widely accused of using food as a weapon in Gaza, after it stopped all essential relief supplies from entering the enclave two months ago. That move, along with the destruction of most of the territory's built-up areas and infrastructure, is widely believed to be a deliberate attempt to make life so difficult for the Palestinians they would choose to leave when given the chance.

The US says it has a plan for resuming the flow of aid into Gaza through a private company. Israel, it says, will not be part of the operation.

"President Trump hopes to win the Nobel Peace Prize while in office. Supporting the forcible eviction of Palestinians or starving them in Gaza will, without a doubt, deny him one," one of the sources said.