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‘It’s a good sign’ as Israeli negotiators head to Doha for Gaza talks
It appears Israel is ready to move Gaza ceasefire talks forward after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said it “accepted the invitation of US-backed mediators” to visit Qatar on Monday.
“There are things happening behind the scenes and apparently some positive messages coming from Hamas through the mediators to the Israeli government,” Yoni Ben-Menachem, an Israeli political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
“I think it’s a good sign that this security delegation is leaving tomorrow for Qatar and there might be positive developments.”
The US-Hamas direct talks are a “separate channel”, he said, adding the Israeli government is following the plan by US envoy Steve Witkoff to “extend the first stage of the captives deal for another two months to avoid going to war in Gaza in the month of Ramadan and then the Jewish holiday Passover”.
US-Hamas meeting ‘very helpful’, US envoy Boehler says
President Donald Trump’s envoy Adam Boehler says direct US meetings with Hamas on the release of captives in Gaza were extremely “helpful”. He did not rule out additional encounters with the Palestinian group.
Boehler said in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union programme he believes something could “come together on Gaza within weeks”. He did not elaborate.
US hostage envoy Adam Boehler says he understood the consternation and concern expressed by Israeli official Ron Dermer about his direct contact with Hamas, but emphasized he had a clear goal in his talks.
“We’re the United States. We’re not an agent of Israel,” Boehler said in an interview with CNN. “We have specific interests at play, and we did communicate back and forth. What I wanted to do is jumpstart some negotiations that were in a very fragile place. And I wanted to say to Hamas, ‘What is the end game that you want here?'”
US envoys are due in the Middle East this week to continue talks on a ceasefire in Gaza. Boehler said he believes a deal could be reached in which all of the captives could be freed, not just the Americans held in the enclave.
Hamas praises US envoy Witkoff’s ceasefire efforts
Discussions between the US special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, and Hamas broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups the US brands as “terrorist” organisations.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is headed to the region and is expected to engage in Gaza truce talks.
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nono praised what he described as the “important role” played by Witkoff in reaching the January 19 ceasefire agreement that halted major attacks on Gaza.
“We hope that he [Witkoff] will work to succeed in the negotiation of the second phase [of the truce],” al-Nono told Reuters.
US hostage envoy says Hamas has offered to lay down arms for five to 10 years
The US hostage envoy Adam Boehler has told Israel’s Channel 11 that Hamas has suggested an exchange of prisoners, as well as a five to ten year truce in which the Palestinian group “would lay down all weapons”, and not be involved in politics.
Boehler repeated some of those details in a series of interviews held with Israeli and US media outlets, after reports emerged of Israeli unhappiness with his unprecedented direct talks with Hamas.
Boehler also added that an “optimistic” scenario would see Israeli captives held in Gaza released in “weeks”.
