Gaza truce talks in Doha get off to ‘promising start,’ set to continue Friday
White House spokesperson says significant work remains to be done but administration upbeat on high-stakes negotiations, downplaying Hamas refusal to formally participate
Israeli negotiators and international mediators met in Qatar on Thursday for talks aimed at halting fighting in Gaza and securing the release of hostages held by the Hamas terror group, with a potential deal touted as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict.
Officials from the United States, Qatar and Egypt met with the Israeli team, led by Mossad chief David Barnea, in Doha, to attempt to hammer out the details of a long-simmering phased deal to end some 10 months of fighting in Gaza sparked by the October 7 attacks, during which Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251, mostly civilians.
White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby called Thursday a “promising start,” and said negotiations were expected to run into Friday.
A lot of work remains given the complexity of the agreement and that negotiators were focusing on its implementation, Kirby said, adding that the mediators managed to “narrow some gaps” in the lead-up to the meeting in Doha. He described Thursday’s meeting as an important step toward a deal.
“The remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close,” he said.
Hamas officials did not join Thursday’s talks, accusing Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had US and international support and to which Hamas had agreed in principle.
However, mediators planned to consult with Hamas’s Doha-based negotiating team after the meeting, according to an official briefed on the talks. Hamas told mediators Wednesday that it would engage if Israel made a “serious” proposal that is in line with the group’s previous demands.
CIA Director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk represented Washington at the talks, convened by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel also in Doha.
Kirby downplayed Hamas’s absence from the talks, noting that the talks have been indirect until now in any case.
“In the past, it has worked very similar[ly] to how it’s working in Doha today, where mediators will sit and discuss, work things out, and then those mediators will be in touch with Hamas, and then Hamas leaders in Doha communicate directly with Mr. Sinwar for final answers,” Kirby said.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters Thursday that the group was committed to the negotiation process and urged mediators to secure Israel’s commitment to a proposal Hamas issued in early July.
The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the over-100 hostages it is still holding in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinian security prisoners jailed by Israel.
Officials from the international community say a ceasefire is needed urgently to free those held captive from grave danger and to end widespread suffering in Gaza, which has been devastated by 10 months of intense military activity aimed at ending Hamas’s rule over the enclave and freeing the hostages. Hamas health authorities said Thursday that the death toll in the Strip had surpassed 40,000, though the toll cannot be verified and is thought to include at least 17,000 combatants Israel says it has killed.
Diplomats hope a ceasefire in Gaza will also persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that has been blamed on Israel.
Both Israel and Hamas have agreed in principle to the plan, which US President Joe Biden announced on May 31. But Hamas has proposed “amendments” and Israel has suggested “clarifications,” leading each side to accuse the other of making new demands it cannot accept.
Ahead of the departure of the Israeli team, a source in the delegation said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had allowed significant leeway on a few of the substantial disputes, though it was unclear if the added flexibility would suffice to bridge remaining gaps.
“We received some minimal wiggling room,” one unnamed source told Channel 12. “It’s something to start with, but might not be enough.”
Aside from Barnea, the delegation includes Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon and senior Netanyahu adviser Ophir Falk.
Before leaving for Qatar, Channel 12 reported Alon gave Netanyahu a document setting out details regarding the deteriorating conditions in which the abductees are held, urging flexibility in Israel’s negotiations to take the mounting danger against them into account.
“The more time passes, the greater the threat to the hostages’ lives,” the document reportedly said. “In light of this, room for flexibility should be found within the framework of the negotiations.”
The Prime Minister’s Office denied such a document had been presented.
Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands for a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north to root out terror operatives. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said the group is only interested in discussing the implementation of Biden’s proposal and not in further negotiations over its content.
The Biden proposal was based on a May 27 Israeli framework for a three-stage deal, with the first six-week period seeing a pause in Israeli ground operations and withdrawal of troops in exchange for the release of 33 hostages in the categories of women, children, elderly and wounded, alongside Israel freeing 990 Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu has said Hamas’s response to its proposal did not meet Israel’s minimum requirements.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Despite backing ceasefire talks, Netanyahu also leads a governing coalition that includes far-right cabinet ministers who have opposed ending the war, threatening to bolt the government if a deal is inked. At the same time, families of hostages and others have pressed Netanyahu to reach an agreement freeing the captives, with some joining anti-government demonstrations and accusing him of stalling for personal political gain.
In Tel Aviv, families of some of the hostages protested outside the headquarters of Netanyahu’s Likud party Thursday.
“To the negotiating team — if a deal is not signed today or in the coming days at this summit, do not return to Israel. You have no reason to return to Israel without a deal,” said Yotam Cohen, whose brother Nimrod Cohen is held hostage in Gaza.
Netanyahu says Israel remains committed to “total victory” against Hamas and the release of all the hostages.
The most intractable dispute has been over the transition from the first phase of the cease-fire — when women, children and other vulnerable hostages would be released — and the second, when captive Israeli soldiers would be freed and a permanent ceasefire would take hold.
Hamas is concerned that Israel will resume the war after the first batch of hostages is released. Israel worries that Hamas will drag out the talks on releasing the remaining hostages indefinitely. Hamdan provided documents showing Hamas had agreed to a US bridging proposal under which talks on the transition would begin by the 16th day of the first phase and conclude by the fifth week.
More recently, Hamas has objected to what it says are new Israeli demands to maintain a presence along the Gaza-Egypt border, an area known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and a road dividing northern and southern Gaza.
Israel denies these are new demands, saying it needs a presence along the border to prevent weapons smuggling and that it must search Palestinians returning to northern Gaza to ensure they are not armed.
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that it had destroyed over 50 tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor over the past week.
On Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told troops stationed there that the army could keep an eye on the border zone even if forced to redeploy outside the Strip.
Kirby said Thursday that Israel had already achieved “the vast majority” of its military objectives in the war against Hamas.
The comment dovetailed with remarks from former US officials quoted by The New York Times on Thursday expressing doubt that eradicating Hamas was realistically possible, saying the IDF had seemingly done all it could in Gaza.
“Israel has been able to disrupt Hamas, kill a number of their leaders and largely reduce the threat to Israel that existed before October 7,” Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the former head of US CENTCOM, told the Times, adding that Hamas has been “diminished.”
Responding to the Times, the military said that “the IDF and its commanders are committed to achieving the goals of the war to dismantle Hamas and bring home our hostages, and will continue to operate with determination to achieve them.”
Hamas has suffered major losses, but its fighters have repeatedly managed to regroup, even in heavily destroyed areas where Israeli forces had previously operated.
Reuters contributed to this report.
