Jammed signals or no phones: Hamas-Israel talks progress under heavy security

Indirect negotiations in Sharm El Sheikh widely seen as most promising yet for ending war

Children look on from a hole in a tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in northern Nuseirat in central Gaza. AFP

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh have advanced on some points of US President Donald Trump's peace plan, sources told The National on Tuesday.

Discussions on the logistics of the release of the 48 hostages held by Hamas were "making progress".

But issues such as the post-war administration of Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas are proving more difficult given Israel's insistence on achieving its declared war objectives, including the elimination of the group's military and governance capabilities.

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The talks, the sources said, are taking place under tight security in a state-owned complex in Sharm El Sheikh consisting of standalone villas and buildings with meeting rooms and lounges.

Delegates' devices are jammed on entering the buildings where the talks are taking place, the sources said. Hamas negotiators don't even carry phones, they added, a precaution inspired by Israel's attempt last month to assassinate the group's leaders in Qatar.

Negotiations began on Monday, exactly a week after the US published a draft of Mr Trump's road map. The plan calls for the release of all hostages held by Hamas, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the entry of significant humanitarian aid into the enclave.

Hamas officials in Sharm El Sheikh are being led by Khalil Al Hayya, the group's chief negotiator, who survived the Israeli attack.

The Israeli delegation is led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and includes senior officials from the Mossad spy agency and the domestic security agency Shin Bet, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, and hostages co-ordinator Gal Hirsch.

Much of Gaza has been laid to waste by Israel's continuing war. EPA

Surrendering weapons

The negotiations on the US President's plan are widely considered to be the most promising yet for ending Israel's war on Gaza, which has to date killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and laid to waste most of the territory. The Israeli military began its offensive after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people.

But the process of turning the lengthy plan into an actionable timeline requires a great deal of good faith on the part of both Hamas and Israel, and depends on the extent of Washington's resolve that an agreement be swiftly reached to end one of the Middle East's darkest and deadliest chapters in modern times.

Israel, meanwhile, continued its relentless attacks on Gaza, with its tanks, boats and jets pounding parts of the territory on Tuesday, giving Palestinians no respite on the anniversary of the Hamas attack and ignoring Mr Trump's week-old request that it halt military operations while negotiations are under way.

Militants fired rockets across the border from Gaza into Israel early on Tuesday, setting off air-raid sirens at Israeli kibbutz Netiv Haasara, according to the Israeli military.

An umbrella of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, marked the anniversary with a hardline statement, saying "the choice of resistance by all means is the sole and only way to confront the Zionist enemy" and declaring their arsenals to be legitimate weapons to be used until liberation.

In Sharm El Sheikh, Hamas delegates have told mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that they categorically reject suggestions that the group should surrender its weapons, but are willing to lay them down and store them under Egyptian supervision, said the sources.

Hamas is also arguing that, while it is ready to stay out of governance and reconstruction in postwar Gaza, it is unwilling to disappear altogether, hoping to evolve away from armed resistance to become a political party.

On the other hand, Hamas has shown some flexibility on Israel's demand to maintain a security buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border, to prevent a repeat of the 2023 attack, according to the sources.

Hamas is also asking the mediators to secure US guarantees of Israel's withdrawal from the rest of Gaza and that a long-term ceasefire will take hold at the end of the negotiations.

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Only bargaining chip

The sources said there were no major problems between Israel and Hamas over the logistics and technicalities of releasing the 48 hostages - 20 of whom are alive - and freeing hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, although Israel was objecting to some of the names on Hamas's list of prominent Palestinians it wants to see walk free.

Hamas's agreement to release all the hostages within days of reaching an agreement is widely seen as a significant leap of faith. The group had in the past insisted on staggered releases to ensure Israel honours its part in a string of proposed deals during months of fruitless negotiations.

With the hostages as its only bargaining chip now, Hamas fears that Israel could drag its feet or even resume hostilities once all the hostages are free and the pressure their families have placed on Mr Netanyahu's government to secure their freedom evaporates.

The group's change of heart on the hostages is perhaps a reflection of the significant weakening of its military capabilities and manpower after two years of relentless Israeli strikes and the loss of some of the popular support it once enjoyed in Gaza.

The sources, however, said Egypt, Qatar and Turkey - close US allies with leverage over Hamas - have quietly secured US assurances that negotiations will continue after the hostages' release until a deal is reached.

It is not clear for how long the Sharm El Sheikh negotiations will continue, but a US official briefed on the talks and speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that Mr Trump wants a deal quickly and that he expects the talks to continue for a few days.

The White House said at the weekend that Mr Trump planned to send two envoys to Egypt – his son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner and special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff - to join the negotiations, but there has been no sign to date that they arrived in Sharm El Sheikh.

However, the sources said the pair are primarily concerned with day-after issues and would only join the negotiations when enough progress has been made on the hostages' release.