Senior officials from the US, Qatar and Turkey are expected to join today’s indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip, amid mounting pressure to reach an agreement. Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani is personally traveling this morning to Sharm el-Sheikh, where the talks are taking place, according to the emirate’s diplomacy. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner are also expected in Egypt today, according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. They were initially expected in the country over the weekend.
Additionally, a Turkish delegation led by intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin will also participate in today’s talks, according to the state news agency Anadolu. Ankara maintains relations with Hamas. The talks, which began Monday, are based on a 20-point plan proposed by President Trump that provides for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and in exchange the release of Palestinian prisoners, the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the disarmament of Hamas.
Trump: “Real chance” to reach agreement and end Gaza war
The 79-year-old Republican spoke yesterday of a “real chance” to reach an agreement to end the war that was sparked by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Qatar, Egypt and the US play a mediating role, but their efforts so far have not brought a lasting ceasefire.
Two previous ceasefires, in November 2023 and early 2025, allowed Israeli hostages and bodies to be repatriated in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, before collapsing.
Hamas has made clear that it considers Trump’s plan as a basis for agreement, but many issues remain to be clarified.
For Qatar, a country that hosts senior officials of the Palestinian Islamist movement – and simultaneously the largest US military base in the Middle East – the goal is “to reach a permanent ceasefire,” noted a spokesman for the emirate’s Foreign Ministry via X.
Hamas demands “guarantees”
Yesterday Tuesday, on the second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised once again to achieve “all” the war goals in Gaza, referring to the release of “all hostages” and “the destruction of Hamas’s power.”
Present in Egypt, Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the movement wants “guarantees” from Trump and the mediators that the war “will end once and for all.” “We don’t trust” Israel, he added.
According to an AFP source close to Hamas’s negotiating team, “the first maps were presented yesterday by the Israeli side for troop withdrawal as well as the mechanism and timeline for the exchange of hostages and prisoners.”
Also yesterday, the state media Al Qahera News reported that Hamas requested the release of Marwan Barghouti – the most well-known Palestinian leader in Israeli prisons – as part of the indirect negotiations with Israel regarding the list of people to be released in exchange for the repatriation of hostages.
In its response to Trump’s plan, Hamas stated Friday that it is ready to release all hostages to ensure “the end of the war” and “complete Israeli withdrawal” from the small coastal enclave.
However, it made no reference to its disarmament, a key element of the proposal, while emphasizing that it intends to participate in any discussion about Gaza’s future, something not provided for in the American plan.
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu assures that he supports Trump’s plan, but simultaneously signals that his army will remain in most of the Gaza Strip, which according to Israeli sources he controls today by approximately 75%. He still insists that he considers Hamas’s disarmament a necessary prerequisite.
The October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 47 remain held hostage in the Gaza Strip, of whom 25 have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
In the large-scale Israeli military retaliation operations, at least 67,160 people have died in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry of Hamas’s government, which the UN considers reliable.
The United Nations has declared a state of famine in parts of the Gaza Strip and its independent researchers say Israel is committing genocide in the small Palestinian enclave. Israel’s government rejects both charges.
ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
