US envoys and regional figures join third day of Gaza peace talks

Top US envoys and regional figures have taken part in the third day of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt on President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.

Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday along with Qatar’s prime minister and Turkey’s intelligence chief as they sought to bridge the gaps that could derail a breakthrough.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC it had shown “the necessary positivity” in the negotiations and submitted a list of the Palestinian prisoners it wanted Israel to release in exchange for the hostages held in Gaza.

Israeli media cited officials as expressing optimism for a deal.

It came a day after Trump said they were “very close to making a deal”.

The first two days of the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have focused on mechanisms for ending the two-year-long war in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory, and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Gaza.

It is hoped that the presence of heavyweight negotiators will add to the momentum for a deal.

Witkoff and Kushner, who served as Trump’s Middle East adviser during his first term, flew into Sharm el-Sheikh early on Wednesday.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called their arrival “very encouraging”, saying they came “with a strong will, a strong message, and a strong mandate from President Trump to end the war in this round of negotiations”.

Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and the director of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation, Ibrahim Kalin, also joined the talks on Wednesday.

And Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly arrived in the afternoon to lead the Israeli delegation.

Representatives from two other Palestinian armed groups, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), were also present.

Their involvement appeared to be an attempt by Hamas to keep them in line and secure the release of the hostages they are believed to be holding.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC on Wednesday morning that its delegation had submitted a list of the Palestinian prisoners it wanted Israel to release in exchange for the 48 hostages still held in Gaza, up to 20 of whom are still alive.

The list included several of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat.

Barghouti, who is seen as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is serving five life sentences plus 40 years after being convicted in 2004 of planning attacks that led to five civilians being killed.

Saadat, the leader of the PLFP, was sentenced to 30 years after being convicted in 2008 of heading an “illegal terrorist organisation” and involvement in attacks, including the assassination of an Israeli minister in 2001.

The Hamas official who spoke to the BBC said the group had “shown the necessary positivity and responsibility to achieve the required progress and complete the agreement”, but acknowledged that differences remained between the two sides.

“Mediators are making major efforts to remove any obstacles to implementing a ceasefire,” he added, noting that “a spirit of optimism is spreading among all participants.”

However, a Palestinian official familiar with talks told the BBC that there were “deep gaps” over how Hamas and Israel interpreted Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

The official said disagreements had emerged over nearly all the key issues, including the map showing the three phases of Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza, and the timetable for the hostage-prisoner exchange.

On Wednesday afternoon, mediators presented a withdrawal map described as a compromise between Hamas’ demand for troops to pull back to positions they held in March and Israel’s demand to stick to the map distributed by the White House last week, which left about 55% of Gaza under Israeli control during the first phase.

A Palestinian source said the mediators were “trying to craft a formula for a gradual and monitored withdrawal”, and that their proposed map would leave about 40% of Gaza under Israeli control.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper cited several Israeli security sources as saying on Wednesday afternoon that there was “a high likelihood for progress, with the possibility of closing the deal in the coming days”.

The sources added that Trump was himself “intensely involved” in the negotiations.

Earlier, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israeli officials were “cautiously optimistic”.

In a statement on Tuesday marking the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which sparked the war, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not mention the Sharm el-Sheikh talks but told Israelis that they were in “a time of fateful decisions”.

He added that Israel would “continue to act to achieve all the aims of the war: return all the hostages, destroy the Hamas regime, and ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel”.

Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, whom Israel targeted last month in an air strike in Qatar’s capital, told Egyptian state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV on Tuesday that the group had come to have “serious and responsible negotiations”.

Hayya said Hamas was ready to reach a deal, but it needed “real guarantees” from Trump and the international community that the war would end and not restart.

Trump told reporters at the White House that the US would do “everything possible to make sure everyone adheres to the deal” if Hamas and Israel could agree one.

“I think there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East. It’s something even beyond the Gaza situation. We want a release of the hostages immediately,” he said.

On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Trump had asked him during a recent phone call to “persuade” Hamas to accept his plan.

But he told lawmakers from his AK party that it was also important to put pressure on Israel, saying its attacks on Gaza were “the greatest obstacle before the path leading to peace”.

The Israeli military appears to have scaled back its ground offensive on Gaza City in recent days following a request from Trump on Friday to “stop the bombing”.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours , the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.

Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.

The Israeli military meanwhile said its troops had killed “several terrorists” who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory’s health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.

The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel is facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.

Additional reporting by Helen Sullivan

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