Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire and a hostage deal will resume in Qatar next week, ending a three-month hiatus that began when Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in the enclave, sources told The National on Thursday.
The negotiations in Doha will bring together mediators from the US and its close Arab allies Qatar and Egypt as well as negotiators from Hamas and Israel, said the sources without clarifying the level of representation at the talks.
News of the resumption of the Gaza talks comes as a delegation from Mossad, Israel's spy agency, was in Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials. The Cairo talks were focused on the fate of the land strip that runs the length of the Egypt-Gaza border on the Palestinian side, including the Rafah crossing, as well as progress made by rivals Hamas and Fatah towards creating a committee to run postwar Gaza.
Israel captured the area known as the Philadelphi Corridor in May, angering Egypt which saw the move as a threat to its national security and a breach of the two countries' 1979 peace treaty and relevant accords reached subsequently.
The Doha talks, said the sources, would focus on an Egyptian proposal for a truce in Gaza of up to 30 days during which humanitarian assistance will be sent to Gaza and displaced Palestinians will return home.
Hamas is expected to use the truce to determine the location and identity of about 100 hostages. Israel's military says it includes 40 who have died in captivity.
Israel, for its part, is expected to announce during the truce the names of the Palestinians held in its prisons on security-related charges and whom it's willing to free in return for the hostages.
The exchange of information on the hostages and the prisoners would be a prelude to their exchange, said the sources. Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would get under way, they added.
Reuters reported that president-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy last month travelled to Qatar and Israel to start Mr Trump's diplomatic push to help reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal before he takes office in January.
Steve Witkoff, who will officially take up the position under Mr Trump's administration, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, also the Gulf state's Foreign Minister and chief Gaza negotiator.
On Monday, Mr Trump warned there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if the Israeli and other hostages held by Hamas were not released before his inauguration.
“Both agreed a Gaza ceasefire is needed before Trump's inauguration so that once the Trump administration takes office it can move on to other issues, like stabilising Gaza and the region,” Reuters reported.
The Gaza war was triggered by an attack on southern Israel by fighters from Hamas and allied groups that killed 1,200. They also held about 250 people hostage in Gaza. Israel's response to the attack was a devastating military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians and injured more than twice that number, according to figures released by the Hamas-led government in Gaza.
The Israeli campaign also razed parts of built-up areas, displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million people and created a humanitarian crisis. Israel's actions in Gaza have given rise to charges of genocide and prompted the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Sources said Israel has agreed in principle to gradually withdraw from the Egypt-Gaza border strip known as Salah Al Din, or the Philadelphi Corridor. However, there has been no word from Israel since the sources first reported the news this week.
The sources also confirmed that the formation of a multinational force including US and Arab troops to be deployed in the area as well as the Rafah crossing was also under discussion. The force would oversee security and ensure the smooth passage of travellers in both directions.
It would also, with the help of sensors, security cameras and satellite imagery, be mandated to prevent the smuggling of arms or dual-use materials through underground tunnels into Gaza for use by Hamas, according to the sources. Israel, they added, is insisting on retaining the right for travellers to use the Rafah crossing.
