Reuters reported that after a “breakthrough” at midnight in the negotiations, Qatar gave Israel and Hamas a draft ceasefire agreement on Monday to end the Gaza war, citing a source familiar with the discussions.
According to the official, Reuters, Steve Witkoff and Qatar’s Prime Minister were present at the meeting. Also, the Shin Bet and Mossad heads from Israel, as well as the person who will be the U.S. envoy once President-elect Trump assumes office next week. Reuters reported that Biden administration officials were also believed to have attended.
The official said that the next 24 hours would be crucial to the success of the agreement.
CBS News reported that “we are not yet there, but there is potential for real progress.”
What is the status of the Israel-Hamas peace talks?
Israel and Hamas are in indirect talks since more than a decade to end the conflict in Gaza, and return scores of militants held hostage in exchange for Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke on the phone Sunday about the ongoing talks. The White House stated that the two leaders discussed a deal based on Mr. Biden’s arrangement from last year. The Biden administration is pushing for a deal to be reached before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
The talks have been repeatedly held up despite the intense mediation of the United States and Qatar, as well as Egypt. These issues include the specifics of the exchange of weapons, whether or not the ceasefire will be permanent, and the withdrawal by Israeli forces.
The war continues despite the accusations of both sides that the other has retreated.
Israeli airstrikes have killed dozens of Palestinians every day. The majority of Gaza’s 2,3 million residents are living in filthy tent camps with their neighborhoods in ruin. Humanitarian aid groups are struggling to provide desperately needed assistance, and experts warn of famine.
Families of hostages in Israel have been holding weekly rallies to demand a deal on their release. They fear that their loved ones may die in harsh conditions as the fighting continues.
What were the main issues that arose in reaching a ceasefire agreement?
Hamas and others still hold around 100 hostages taken in the attack of Oct. 7, 2023 on southern Israel, which sparked the war. In that attack, militants killed around 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapped around 250. Israeli officials have declared that a third hostages are dead, but they suspect the real number is closer to half.
Hamas demands the release of many Palestinian prisoners. This includes senior militants who were convicted for orchestrating attacks which killed civilians. Israel is reluctant in releasing such prisoners, particularly since the Hamas leader Yahya sinwar, who was killed as a result of the attack of 2023, was one of those released.
Israel has demanded more information from the two sides about which hostages remain alive in order to make sure they are released first. Hamas claims it needs a temporary truce in order to find out the fate of the hostages, who are held by different groups at secret locations.
The deal is a multi-phased plan. In the first phase, Hamas will release the most vulnerable of the hostages, and Israeli forces will withdraw from certain areas. This would allow some Palestinians to go back to their homes, and an influx of humanitarian aid.
The second step would be to negotiate a ceasefire lasting for at least a year and a withdrawal of Israeli troops in exchange of the remaining hostages.
Hamas says it will not release hostages until the war is over. According to local health officials, Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 46,000 people, mostly children and women, but they don’t specify how many were militants.
Hamas fears that Israel’s offensive will be resumed – and intensified – when the hostages have been released and the militants are no longer in possession of their most important bargaining chip.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has promised to achieve this goal. Israel will not end the conflict until Hamas has been destroyed and its military and political capabilities have been weakened.
Lack of trust is a two-way street: Israelis are afraid that Hamas may drag out the negotiations for the second phase and extend the ceasefire indefinitely, while the hostages suffer.
The talks have nearly collapsed due to disagreements
Last summer, the talks almost collapsed when Netanyahu announced that Israel would remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip along the Gaza-Egypt Border.
Israel claims that Hamas has been smuggling weapons into Gaza for years through the tunnels below the corridor. It says it must control the region to stop Hamas from re-building. Egypt, an important mediator, claims to have blocked the tunnels many years ago. It is also opposed to Israeli presence along its Gaza border.
Israel also requested a system for inspecting those returning to their homes, in the northern Gaza Strip. Around a million people fled the area following Israeli evacuation orders before the war began. Hamas is demanding that they return. The details are still being worked on.
Israel has said that people who return to the north must be searched for arms. This would require Israeli presence along the Netzarim Corridor, which is a stretch of military installations and closed roads that stretches from the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea just south of Gaza City.
Hamas is reported to have shown some flexibility in regards to the timeline of Israel’s withdrawal.
Israel has said that Hamas will never be able to rule Gaza again, but it still has not endorsed a realistic alternative government plan. Hamas is able to regroup quickly after Israeli operations and control most of the territory, even the areas that were hardest hit.
The Biden administration, for years, has pushed a grand deal in which an reformed Palestinian Authority, with the support from Arab and Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia which would take the historic step to forge ties with Israel, would govern Gaza after the war.
Arab and Muslim leaders insist that they will only support such plans if the plan includes a path to a Palestinian State in the West Bank occupied by Israel, east Jerusalem annexed by Israel, and Gaza – territories Israel captured during the Mideast War of 1967.
Israel’s government opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and has excluded any involvement by the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu has said that Israel will continue to maintain a security control, but delegate the governance of Gaza to Palestinians who are politically independent. Hamas has also threatened those who would cooperate with Israel to run the territory.
Hamas, on the other hand, has stated that it is willing to give up control of Gaza to Palestinians. Hamas agreed late last year to a plan mediated by Egypt for a group independents to run the territory under the auspices the Palestinian Authority. However, the Palestinian Authority has not yet accepted the proposal.
Hamas also demands the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade that was imposed after it took power in 2007. Experts say this is necessary for Gaza to rebuild.
However, lifting the blockade would allow Hamas a major win and eventually rebuild their military capabilities. This is another non-starter for Israel.
