Hamas, Israel upbeat as top teams join talks on ending Gaza war

Hamas and Israel voiced cautious optimism about the prospects of ending the two-year war in Gaza, as top mediators arrived in Egypt for a third day of negotiations on U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

“A spirit of optimism is prevailing among all parties,” said Taher Al-Nounou, a member of the Hamas delegation who has been present at the talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh since Monday. Details on the exchange of hostages for prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli troops are being discussed, he said.

Encouraged by the apparent progress toward implementing the 20-point proposal unveiled by Trump early last week, Washington sent special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner to the talks, according to people briefed on the matter. Israel signaled confidence in the direction of the indirect diplomacy by dispatching its senior negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, to take part as of Wednesday. Dermer is one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most trusted advisors.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said he’s received “encouraging” news about the negotiations, and that he wants Trump to travel to the North African country for the signing of a deal if an agreement is reached.

Hamas has offered to free the last of the hostages it holds from the Oct. 7, 2023 raid on southern Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza, a conflict that’s devastated the Palestinian territory and destabilized much of the Middle East. But the Iran-backed group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, has stopped short of agreeing to other stipulations such as for its remaining fighters to disarm.

In the Hamas statement, Al-Nounou said the group had handed over a list of candidates for the 1,950 Palestinian prisoners or detainees which the Trump plan requires Israel to free in exchange for the 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

The talks also “focused on mechanisms for ending the war” and “the withdrawal of occupation forces,” Al-Nounou said. That could presage a dispute over sequencing: The Trump plan calls for the war to be declared over, but only for partial redeployments of the Israeli army, in the first phase of implementation.

Gila Gamliel, a member of Netanyahu’s security Cabinet, said there’s “cautious optimism” about the talks. But some Palestinian prisoners are off the table when it comes to finalizing the release roster, which requires Israeli government approval, she said.

“We are approaching a process in which, to our regret, we shall have to hand over terrorists who murdered Jews and who should be spending the rest of their lives in jail,” Gamliel told Galey Israel radio, while adding that “arch-terrorists” would be kept behind bars.

Since Trump went public with his plan, Israel says its forces, which have taken over the majority of Gaza, have assumed a defensive position. Hamas says airstrikes and shelling continue. Israel has in recent weeks focused attention on Gaza City, the enclave’s de facto capital, saying the last Hamas bastions are embedded there.

Trump’s plan has been buoyed by the open support of Arab and Muslim-majority countries troubled not only by the Gaza destruction but also by the wider destabilization of the region. Israel has fought other Iranian-backed militias since the war started, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Islamic Republic itself.

Qatar, which like Egypt has served as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas, was due to send its Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday, according to the foreign ministry in Doha. Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that Ibrahim Kalin, the director of Turkish intelligence, was also on his way to the resort, a sign that Ankara — a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign — is on board with the Trump administration’s plan.

“I think there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East, something even beyond the Gaza situation,” Trump said on Tuesday. “There’s a real chance that we could do something.”

Hamas said Tuesday an agreement should include the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, an assurance that refugees can return and immediate permission to begin reconstruction under a Palestinian committee. A U.N.-body has declared a famine in parts of the territory, which has a population of about 2 million people.

Negotiations over a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have previously and repeatedly fallen through over disagreements surrounding the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the disarming of Hamas.

The Egypt talks come two years after thousands of Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting another 250. The resulting war has killed over 67,000 Gazans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, and triggered a humanitarian crisis. Israel has lost more than 450 troops in Gaza combat.