Gaza talks turn to key sticking points between Israel and Hamas

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – Delegations from Israel and Hamas held their first day of indirect negotiations in Egypt on Oct 6 on US President Donald Trump’s plan to halt the war in Gaza, wrestling with contentious issues such as demands that Israel withdraw and Hamas disarm.

Israel and Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind Mr Trump’s plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into Gaza.

The plan also has the backing of Arab and Western states. Mr Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal, in what Washington hails as the closest the sides have yet come to ending the two-year-old conflict.

Mr Trump, who has cast himself as the only world leader capable of achieving peace in Gaza, has invested significant political capital in efforts to end the war that has killed tens of thousands and left US ally Israel increasingly isolated on the world stage.

‘A really good chance’

“I really think we’re going to have a deal,” Mr Trump told reporters on Oct 6 at the White House as the delegations met in Egypt. “We have a really good chance of making a deal, and it’ll be a lasting deal.”

But both sides are seeking clarifications of crucial details, including over issues that have derailed all previous attempts to end the war and could defy any quick resolution.

Mr Trump has pushed Israel to suspend its bombing of Gaza for the talks. Gaza residents said Israel had scaled back its offensive substantially, although not halted it altogether. The Gaza health authorities reported 19 people killed by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, around a third of the typical daily toll in recent weeks, when Israel mounted one of its biggest offensives of the war in Gaza City.

Talks to resume on Oct 8

The talks began at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh with delegations from Egypt, the US and Qatar present as intermediaries. A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said the first session ended late in the evening on Oct 6 and more talks were due to take place on Oct 7.

Hamas outlined its stance on the release of hostages and the scale and timeline of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, the official said.

The group also voiced concerns about whether Israel would commit to a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive pull-out, the official said.

Even as the talks concluded for the day, sounds of explosions from air strikes and the demolition of houses could be heard in Gaza City, signifying that Israel had not ceased its bombardment.

The talks began on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war, when fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and left the majority of 2.2 million Gazans homeless and hungry in the rubble of the enclave destroyed by relentless bombardment.

Egyptian sources said Hamas was seeking clarification of several details, including guarantees that Israel would uphold promises to withdraw its troops from Gaza once the militants give up their leverage by freeing their hostages.

But a senior Israeli security source said the talks initially would focus only on the release of hostages and give Hamas a few days to complete that phase.

Israel will not compromise on withdrawing troops only to the so-called yellow line in Gaza – a boundary for an initial Israeli pullback under the Trump plan, the source said. It would create a strategic buffer zone, and further withdrawal would depend on Hamas meeting set conditions.

Wariness about prospects of breakthrough

With Israeli forces blasting their way through Gaza City and flattening neighbourhoods as they advance, Gaza residents called a ceasefire their last hope that the enclave will emerge habitable.

“If there is a deal, then we survive. If there isn’t, it is like we have been sentenced to death,” said Ms Gharam Mohammad, 20, displaced along with her family in central Gaza.

Inside Israel there is clamour for an end to the war to bring home hostages, although right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet

oppose any halt to fighting

.

Though Mr Trump says he wants a deal quickly, an official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks that started on Oct 6 would require at least a few days.

An official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Mr Trump’s 72-hour deadline for the hostages’ return could be unachievable for dead hostages. Their remains may need to be located and recovered from scattered sites.

A Palestinian official close to the talks was sceptical about prospects of a breakthrough given deep mutual mistrust, saying Hamas and other Palestinian factions were worried Israel might ditch negotiations once it recovered the hostages.

The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies Mossad and Shin Bet, Mr Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, Mr Ophir Falk, and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch. Israel’s chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, is expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials.

The Hamas delegation is led by the group’s

exiled Gaza leader, Mr Khalil Al-Hayya

, who survived an Israeli airstrike that killed his son in Doha, the Qatari capital, a month ago.

The US has sent special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, who has strong ties to the Middle East, to the talks, the White House said.

The parties “are going over the lists of both the Israeli hostages and also the political prisoners who will be released”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Oct 6.

“The administration is working very hard to move the ball forward as quickly as we can.”

Hamas negotiators will seek to clarify the mechanism for a swap of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, as well as an Israeli military withdrawal and a ceasefire, according to a Hamas statement late on Oct 5.

A thorny issue is likely to be the Israeli demand, echoed in Mr Trump’s plan, that Hamas disarm, a Hamas source told Reuters. The group has insisted it will not disarm unless Israel ends its occupation and a Palestinian state is created.

In a statement commemorating the Oct 7 anniversary, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Mr Trump’s plan “presents an opportunity that must be seized to bring this tragic conflict to an end” and called for all hostages to be released immediately.

“End the suffering for all,” Mr Guterres said. REUTERS