Hostage deal talks are set to be held this week amid reports that Hamas and Israel still remain at odds over issues relating to a permanent ceasefire, which for months has been the major stumbling block in securing an agreement.
A working-level Israeli negotiating team is expected to visit both Doha and Cairo this week, with a larger meeting held on the talks with CIA Director William Burns, who has been one of the lead negotiators.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Hamas over the weekend sought assurances from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar, and the United States that the talks for a permanent ceasefire, which would be held during phase one of the deal, would continue until such time as there was an agreement on the issue.
Israel, in turn, understands that these talks would be held as long as progress is being made. It fears that the Hamas amendment would allow for such talks to be held indefinitely, a move that would prevent further military activity against Hamas, and become a form of a de-facto ceasefire, without the return of all the hostages.
The Prime Minister’s Office said on Friday that “gaps still remain between the [two] sides,” but that an Israeli team would participate in the negotiations this week.
Mossad Chief David Barnea was in Doha on Friday for talks, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser Ophir Falk. Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and IDF Reserves Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who has been heavily involved in the talks, were not part of the delegation.
Progress and challenges in ceasefire talks
A US official told reporters on Thursday night that both sides had agreed to a framework of understanding, but that there were still issues with the sequencing of how everything would happen.
Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden for half an hour on Thursday night, as the two men went over the details of the deal and the latest amendments to the proposal.
Israel is fully committed to the three-phase proposal that Biden unveiled at the White House on May 31, an Israeli official stressed on Saturday night.
Under that proposal, Hamas would free humanitarian hostages in the first phase of the deal, with numbers varying from 18 to 33, in exchange for a lull in the war and the release of Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in Israeli jails.
Talks on the issue of a permanent ceasefire fire would begin on the 16th day of that first phase. Hamas had initially insisted that Israel must first agree to a permanent ceasefire before any hostages were released; Israel rejects that demand.
Last week Hamas dropped that demand, a step that allowed talks to move forward already on Friday.
A senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday that his group had accepted a US proposal to begin talks. Hamas has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told the news agency on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
Efforts towards Gaza ceasefire intensify
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The new proposal ensures that mediators would guarantee a temporary ceasefire, aid delivery, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as indirect talks continue to implement the second phase of the agreement, the Hamas source said.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over the past few days with active shuttle diplomacy among Washington, Israel, and Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts from Doha, where the exiled Hamas leadership is based.
A regional source said the US administration was trying hard to secure a deal for a permanent Gaza ceasefire and the release of the remaining 120 hostages before the presidential election in November.
Talks for a Gaza ceasefire have renewed amid growing fear that the IDF-Hezbollah war along Israel’s northern border that has been ongoing for nine months since October 7 would expand into a third Lebanon war.
The Iranian proxy group Hezbollah has linked the fate of its cross-border violence against the IDF along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon to the fate of the Gaza war. So a Gaza ceasefire would supposedly end Israel’s two-front wars in the South and the North.
Earlier on Friday, Hamas informed its ally Hezbollah that it had agreed to a proposal which would lead to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah welcomed the step, two sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
A Hamas delegation headed by the group’s deputy leader Khalil Al-Hayya briefed Nasrallah about the latest developments at a meeting in Beirut, the sources said.
One of the sources, a Hezbollah official, told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements from the group. “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said.
Families rally for hostage return
Some families of hostages on Saturday gave a statement to reporters ahead of a weekly hostage rally in Tel Aviv, in which they called on Netanyahu to go through with the deal.
“For the first time in many months, we feel hope,” said Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, 24, who was abducted from his kibbutz home on October 7. “This is an opportunity that cannot be missed,” she said.Thousands of protesters rallied and called for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza on Saturday evening, Israeli media reported.
Most notably, there was a large protest in Tel Aviv that temporarily blocked traffic on the Ayalon Highway.After several minutes, police dispersed the protest with the assistance of water cannons.
Demonstrators also gathered at numerous locations across Israel, including in the central protest location of Tel Aviv, alongside other cities and localities such as Jerusalem, Haifa, Caesarea, Emek Hefer, and Karkur.
Protesters at the Karkur junction, much like other protest locations on Saturday, dedicated the demonstration to the twelve women held hostage by Hamas.
Some carried signs stating, “A girl gave birth to a girl in captivity,” as hostages mark nine months in captivity. Other demonstrators called for elections.
Ynet reported that approximately 2,000 protesters demonstrated in Caesarea, calling for a hostage deal and immediate elections.
A mass march also took place in Haifa and included representatives from several protest organizations, who also called for elections.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.