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Negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza resumed in Cairo on Monday, with mediators from Egypt, the US and Qatar presenting a slightly amended version of a previous proposal for a 70-day truce and the release of 10 hostages.
Sources told The National that a mid-level Israeli team of negotiators and a senior Hamas official arrived in Cairo to join mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar for the latest round of talks. They said the Trump administration is using Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American who led the group Arab Americans for Trump during the 2024 election, as an intermediary with Hamas.
The tactic, the sources explained, amounts to a new approach by the Americans that effectively ends the intermediary role played by Qatar and Egypt in indirect negotiations between the Americans and Hamas. Hamas leaders and US mediators are known to have met face-to-face in Doha at least once in recent weeks.
The US, along with the EU and Israel, view Hamas as a terrorist group. The sources said Mr Bahbah is involved in the current round of talks, but they could not say if he was in the Egyptian capital.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest that a deal might be possible in a video message released on Monday in which he said: "I really hope we can announce something regarding the hostages, if not today, then tomorrow.” However, his office later released a statement from a "senior official" saying that the Prime Minister had meant only that "we will not give up on our hostages".
The US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have been unsuccessfully trying to broker a ceasefire since the last one ended on March 18, when Israel resumed military operations in Gaza more than two weeks after it halted the entry of humanitarian aid to the territory.
Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since March 18, taking the death toll since the war began to nearly 54,000, according to figures released by the territory's health ministry. Most of Gaza's built-up areas have been reduced to rubble and the majority of its 2.3 million residents displaced.
The sources said the amended proposal provides for the staggered release of 10 hostages; five during the first week of the ceasefire and another five towards its end. Also proposed is the release during the truce of half of the remains of hostages who have died in captivity in Gaza.
During the proposed truce, substantial amounts of humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are facing acute hunger despite the recent entry of modest amounts of aid. It also includes negotiations on a "long-term" ceasefire that will commence during the 70-day truce, according to the sources.
The sources said the Cairo talks were expected to also cover the departure from Gaza of senior Hamas officials as well as those of the group's ally, Islamic Jihad. The sources said that while Hamas officials will go into exile in either Turkey or Algeria, those from Islamic Jihad were likely to go to Iran, which has been the chief supporter of the two militant groups.
The sources explained that the latest version of the proposal envisages the staggered release of the 10 hostages rather than freeing all of them in one batch. This change seems to be a nod to Hamas, which wants to hold on to the hostages for as long as it can, given that they are its strongest bargaining chip given the erosion of its military capabilities by Israel. Of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas, only about 20 are believed to be alive, according to Mr Netanyahu.
Another slight change is that the latest plan talks about a long-term, rather than permanent, ceasefire. This appears to accommodate Israel's often-repeated assertion that the war will end only when Hamas has been stripped of all its governing and military capabilities and all the hostages and remains are released.
The latest round of Gaza talks comes as Israel's war in Gaza draws growing condemnation from the international community over the acute shortage of food, water, fuel and medicine in the territory, as a result of as Israel's blockade.
Another part of the backdrop is the leaking of documents showing Israel's plans to control 75 per cent of Gaza's territory within two months, suggesting that the enclave's residents could be relocated to three small zones. The plans were reported by Israel's media, including The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post.
