Hamas officials arrived in Egypt yesterday ahead of talks with Israel that the US hopes will lead to a halt in fighting and the freeing of hostages in Gaza, with Washington’s top diplomat saying the next days are critical.
Israeli negotiators led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will reach Egypt today for negotiations in the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al Sheikh about the release of hostages, part of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the nearly two-year Gaza war.
“We will know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday about the release of 48 remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are alive.
A Hamas delegation, led by the group’s exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al Hayya, landed in Egypt later yesterday to join representatives of the US and Qatar for talks over the implementation of the most advanced effort yet to halt the conflict.
It was the first visit by Hayya to Egypt since he survived an Israeli strike in Doha, the Qatari capital, last month.
Trump has promoted a 20-point plan aimed at ending the fighting in Gaza, securing the release of remaining hostages, and defining the territory’s future. Israel and Hamas both have agreed to parts of the plan.
Hamas on Friday accepted the hostage release and several other elements but sidestepped the plan’s most contentious points, including calls for the group’s disarmament – which it has long rejected.
Trump welcomed Hamas’ response, saying he believed Hamas had showed it was ‘ready for a lasting PEACE.’ He told Israel to stop bombing Gaza immediately, but its attacks on the enclave have continued.
Hamas left some issues up for further negotiation at the talks in Egypt.
An official briefed on the talks said the negotiations will focus on hammering out a comprehensive deal before a ceasefire can be implemented.
“This differs from earlier rounds of negotiations which followed a phased approach, where the first phase was agreed and then required more negotiations to reach subsequent phases in the ceasefire,” the official told Reuters.
“These subsequent rounds of negotiations is where things broke down previously and there is a conscious effort among mediators to avoid that approach this time around.”
Rubio told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that a timeline for finalising a deal to release the hostages was uncertain but that talks “cannot take weeks or even multiple days. We want to see this happen very fast.”
The plan has stirred hopes for peace among Palestinians but there was no let-up of Israeli attacks on Gaza yesterday as planes and tanks pounded areas across the enclave, killing at least 19 people, local health authorities said.
Four of those killed were seeking aid in the south of the strip and five were killed in an air strike in Gaza City in the early afternoon, they said.
Ahmed Assad, a displaced Palestinian man in central Gaza, said he had been hopeful when news broke of Trump’s plan but said nothing had changed on the ground.
In a sign of Israeli optimism over the Trump plan, the shekel currency hit a three-year high against the dollar and Tel Aviv stocks reached an all-time high.
Some people in Tel Aviv shared that sentiment. “It’s the first time in months that I’m actually hopeful. Trump has really instilled a lot of hope into us,” said resident Gil Shelly.
Domestically, Netanyahu is caught between growing pressure to end the war – from hostage families and a war-weary public – and demands from hardline members of his coalition who insist there must be no let-up in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that halting attacks on Gaza would be a ‘grave mistake’.
He and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have threatened to bring down Netanyahu’s government if the Gaza war ends.
But opposition leader Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party has said political cover will be provided so the Trump initiative can succeed and ‘we won’t let them torpedo the deal’.
Israel began attacking Gaza after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign, which has killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, has led to its international isolation.
Israel has deported a further 29 activists detained by the navy last week for taking part in a flotilla that sought to deliver aid to blockaded Gaza, the foreign ministry said yesterday.
The flotilla, which set sail in late August, marked the latest attempt by activists to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of the territory.
Israel says that the blockade is legal and has called the flotilla a provocation.
Israel has so far deported at least 170 of the more than 450 activists it detained.
The government has faced accusations of mistreatment, including allegations that some activists were denied access to their lawyers – claims that the foreign ministry denies.
However, the foreign ministry yesterday said that the legal rights of the activists were being ‘fully upheld’ and that some had chosen not to sign deportation orders waiving their right to a 72-hour delay, which would have allowed them to be deported sooner.
Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the flotilla as a stunt. As it sailed closer, Israel had offered to transfer to Gaza the aid the flotilla was carrying in co-ordination with a foreign government.
Israel’s foreign ministry has said that a ‘small quantity’ of aid had been carried by the flotilla.
Meanwhile, the flotilla organisers have said that claims it was carrying ‘little to no humanitarian aid’ were false.
A new flotilla comprising 11 vessels is attempting to make its way to Gaza, including a vessel carrying medics and journalists.
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