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Donald Trump's Middle East envoy was back in Qatar on Sunday to press ahead with negotiations to reach a Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages as the latest push by Washington to end the war in the enclave gathers steam ahead of the republican president-elect's January 20 inauguration.
Sources said Steve Witkoff flew back to Qatar after a brief visit to Israel where he held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night.
After their talks, Mr Netanyahu's office said he was dispatching the heads of the spy agency Mossad, its domestic spy agency Shin Bet and political and military advisers to Qatar to advance the talks, which have continued for a year without producing a deal.
The sources on Saturday said Hamas had softened its stance on some of its core conditions for a ceasefire, but that the two sides remain at odds over a range of issues.
“Mr Witkoff is now laying out the broad outlines of a deal, but some differences between Hamas and Israel remain unresolved,” said one of the sources. “There is a fine line now that, if we cross, we could have a deal. If we don't, the entire process will collapse.”
US President Joe Biden, who leaves office later this month, said on Thursday that there had been “real progress” in the Gaza talks, while Mr Trump has repeatedly warned Hamas that there will be “hell to pay” if it does not free the remaining captives before his inauguration.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that a deal is “very close” and he hoped to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration. But US officials have expressed similar optimism on several occasions over the past year.
The latest proposals to pause the war, the sources explained, provided for a 60-day truce during which Hamas will stagger the release of the hostages it has held since October 2023, when its fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, kidnapping about 250 and causing the 15-month-old Gaza war.
Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are believed to be holding close to 100 hostages. Israel's military says about 40 of them have died in captivity, but the sources say fewer than that have perished.
They said Hamas will free three hostages every week in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It wants Israeli troops to reposition outside urban centres during the release.
However, Hamas is refusing to meet Israel's demand for a list of all the hostages before the exchange begins. Israel also remains opposed to the release of several high-profile Palestinians sentenced to long jail terms on security-related charges, according to the sources.
Hamas has already agreed to an Israeli demand that the prisoners and their families leave the Palestinian territories and live in exile abroad upon their release.
The group is also now willing to accept verbal guarantees from the mediators – the US, Qatar and Egypt – as well as Turkey, that Israel will continue negotiations for a permanent ceasefire after the expiry of the proposed truce. It had previously demanded written guarantees.
Hamas has also agreed to put off resolving remaining differences with Israel to the second phase of the deal that commences at the expiry of the 60-day truce.
One of these is Israel's insistence on maintaining buffer zones in the eastern and northern fringes of Gaza, something that Hamas is said by the sources to be ready to tolerate for a time until resolved at a later
The latest push for a deal to end the war comes as more than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than twice that number injured, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. The majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been displaced by the war, which has left large areas of built-up areas reduced to rubble.
The only truce in the Gaza war was in late November 2023, when the guns were silenced for a week. During that truce, Hamas released about 100 hostages in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners.
