What to know about today’s Gaza talks in Egypt
Delegations from Israel and Hamas are set to discuss a plan to end the war in Gaza.
Here is what we know about the talks taking place in Egypt:
- Khalil al-Hayya, who recently survived an Israeli assassination attempt by Israel in Qatar and is Hamas’s most senior member outside of Gaza, will be leading the group’s delegation.
- Ron Dermer is the head of Israel’s delegation. Serving as the country’s minister of strategic affairs, the 54-year-old is widely seen as one of Netanyahu’s closest and most trusted advisers.
- The US will be represented by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
- The meeting takes place after Hamas agreed to certain provisions of the US proposal but asked for more negotiations.
- The Palestinian group did not commit to disarming, which is one of the points in Trump’s plan.
Israeli and US officials not part of today’s talks in Egypt
We know that the US and Israeli delegations will not be taking part in the talks today. We will have Hamas sitting with the mediators, trying to work out the many details absent from the plan – how to implement the first phase specifically.
Trump and Israel have been saying this is a test of how serious Hamas is. For the mediators, there is a real concern about these talks breaking down, so in an effort to avoid that, a lot of things, including logistics, need to be figured out before the sides can sit together and iron out the details.
There are also explosive issues as to who from the thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails will be released.
At least all of the "administrative detainees" should be released, they are the very definition of hostages. All the military trials should be reviewed as well and redone in a real court with actual evidence...
But Israel is not serious about any of it anyway, they'll simply re-arrest those that get released as they have been doing.
Trump’s personal stakes in Gaza talks could shape negotiations: Analyst
What appears to be Trump’s personal investment in ending the war in Gaza and returning all captives could make this new round of negotiation talks different from previous failed efforts, says Mohamad Elmasry, professor of media studies at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
“He keeps saying this would be the first peace in 3,000 years; it’s an absurd statement on its face, but it suggests he feels a sense of accomplishment, and if that is the case, he can apply real pressure on Israel to end the war,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera. “In many ways, he controls the cards here.”
Elmasry said the Israelis, at the talks in Egypt, will focus on getting the captives back “and worry about the rest later”.
For Hamas, it will be looking for some guarantees on contentious issues such as the Israeli withdrawal, governance and the group’s disarmament – a key provision of the 20-point US plan to which the Palestinian group has not committed yet.
