Hamas and Israel enter third day of peace talks; Trump envoy expected to join
By Samy Magdy, Associated Press
Cairo (AP)-Israel and Hamas entered a third day of peace talks on Wednesday in an Egyptian seaside resort, with the participation of other senior officials in the United States, Israel and mediator countries-a sign that negotiators aim to approach the most difficult issues of an American plan aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Hamas affirms that it is looking for firm guarantees on the part of the American president Donald Trump and the mediators that Israel will not resume his military campaign in the Palestinian territory once the militant group has released all the remaining hostages.
All the parties expressed their optimism as to an agreement ending a two -year war, which made tens of thousands of Palestinians killed and most of the destroyed Gaza Strip. But key elements of the peace plan have still not been specified – in particular the requirement of the disarmament of Hamas, the calendar and the extent of the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Gaza and the creation of an international organization to manage Gaza after the departure of Hamas from power.
The Prime Minister and High Diplomat of Qatar, Cheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, went to the Egyptian coastal city of Charm El-Cheikh to join the negotiations.
We also expected Trump’s envoy on Wednesday in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and the president of the president, Jared Kushner, according to an American official who was not authorized to speak to journalists, has not yet been officially announced.
Since Israel, the principal adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, was also to join the group, said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media.
While the Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators met both in preliminary negotiations on Wednesday morning, a senior Hamas, Taher Nanny, said that the group had exchanged a list of Palestinian prisoners whom he sought to release in exchange for Israeli hostages, under the terms of the agreement.
Trump’s peace plan
The plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the 48 hostages held during the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war and triggered the devastating reprisals of Israel. About twenty hostages would still be alive.
He plans that Israel withdraws his Gaza troops after the disarmament of Hamas and that an international security force is put in place. The territory would be under international governance, under the supervision of Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi said in television remarks on Wednesday that negotiations so far “were very encouraging.”
Netanyahu accepted Trump’s plan. His office said on Tuesday that Israel was “prudently optimistic”, describing talks as technical negotiations on a level that the two parties had already approved.
In a statement published on Tuesday, Hamas reiterated its long-standing requirements in favor of a sustainable ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Israel from Gaza, but has said nothing about disarmament, a measure to which it has long resisted. Hamas has also spoken against the idea of international domination, although it has agreed that it would not play any role in Gaza’s governance after the war.
Speaking at Charm El-Cheikh, Khalil Al-Hayya, the main negotiator of Hamas, said on Egyptian television Qahera that the group wanted solid guarantees from Trump and the mediators that the war “would not return”. It seems that it is his first public appearance since an Israeli strike targeting him as well as other senior Hamas leaders in Qatar last month killed six people, including his son and his office director.
In January, the two parties concluded a cease-fire which led to the release of certain Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Under the terms of the agreement – in which Trump and Witkoff played a major role in the negotiation – the two parties were then supposed to start negotiations on a long -term truce, an Israeli withdrawal and a complete release of the hostages.
But Israel broke the ceasefire in March, resuming his campaign of bombing and offensive, saying that he was aimed at putting pressure on Hamas to obtain the releases of remaining hostage.
The cycles of previous negotiations have often failed because of the same obstacle, Hamas demanding insurance at the end of the war and Netanyahu promising to continue to fight until the group is destroyed. The Trump plan is trying to solve all the problems at once, providing for the disarmament of Hamas and an post-war scenario to govern the territory, providing for a mass reconstruction campaign.
Pray for an agreement
During the attack by Hamas two years ago, activists burst into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, for most civilians, and have removed 251. Most hostages have since been released as part of the ceasefire or other agreements.
An increasing number of experts, including those mandated by a UN organization, said that the Israeli offensive in Gaza was equivalent to a genocide – an accusation that Israel Nie. More than 67,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The ministry, which does not make a difference between civilians and combatants but says that around half of the deaths were women and children, is part of the government led by Hamas. The United Nations and many independent experts consider these figures as the most reliable estimate of war victims.
In the Gaza Strip, where a large part of the territory is in ruins, the Palestinians are desperately waiting for a decisive advance. Thousands of people fleeing the last Israeli terrestrial offensive in the north of Gaza and in the city of Gaza have installed makeshift tents along the beach in the central part of the territory, sometimes using covers as shelter.
“There is no food or drinking water, and the passages are blocked,” said UM Sulaiman Abu Afash, a woman who is moved from the city of Gaza. “Our children sleep in the street. We buy drinking water. Where are we going? There is no pity.”
Sara Rihan, a moved woman from Jabaliya, said she was praying for the end of the war. “I hope we return home and to us even if there are no houses,” she said. “Our existence on our earth is for us the greatest happiness. »»
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