Negotiators gather for Gaza talks, mediators caution deal may not be swift

Hamas officials were in Egypt on Monday ahead of talks with Israel that the US hopes will bring a halt to war in Gaza and release of hostages despite contentious issues like disarmament of the group under Donald Trump's plan.

Israeli negotiators were also due to travel to Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh later in the day for talks about freeing hostages, part of the US president's 20-point blueprint for ending the two-year-old conflict.

The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies Mossad and Shin Bet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch.

However, Israel's chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was only expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials. Spokespeople for Dermer and the prime minister did not immediately comment.

The Hamas delegation is led by the group's exiled Gaza leader, Khalil Al-Hayya, whose visit to Egypt was the first since he survived an Israeli airstrike in Doha, the Qatari capital, last month designed to kill top Hamas officials.

Negotiators from Hamas will seek clarity on the mechanism to achieve a swap of remaining hostages - both alive and dead - for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, as well as an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and a ceasefire, according to a statement put out by the group late on Sunday.

A thorny issue is likely to be the Israeli demand, echoed in Trump's plan, that Hamas disarm, something the group insists cannot take place unless Israel ends its occupation and a Palestinian state is created, a Hamas source told Reuters.

Netanyahu says a Palestinian state will never happen, defying Western countries that have newly recognised Palestinian independence.

An official briefed on the talks told Reuters he expected the round of talks kicking off on Monday would not be quick. "Negotiations will last at least a few days if not longer. There won't likely be a quick agreement because the goal is to reach agreement on a comprehensive deal with all details worked out before the ceasefire can begin to be implemented," he said.

"Hamas and Israel have agreed to the fundamentals of the Trump 20-point plan. The next phase or phases of talks are designed to tackle the specific details, which in the past has been a lengthy process."

Previously, mediators have secured agreement on a first phase and left the next to be negotiated later, only for the whole process to collapse within short order.

Mediators have a long list of difficult issues to get Israel and Hamas to agree upon, ranging from logistics like the details and timeline for a withdrawal of Israeli forces inside Gaza to the fine print of a transfer of Gaza governance away from Hamas and the formation of an International Stabilisation Force envisioned as part of Trump's plan, the official said.

Trump was optimistic. "I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST," he said in a social media post.

The first phase deals with the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel. There are 48 remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are alive.

Trump's plan is the most advanced effort yet to halt the war, the longest and most destructive ever in generations of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hamas on Friday approved the hostage release and several other elements of Trump's plan but sidestepped more disputed points, including calls for it to disarm and relinquish political power in Gaza.

Trump welcomed Hamas' response and told Israel to stop bombing Gaza.

AVOIDING A PHASED APPROACH

The plan has stirred hopes for peace among Palestinians, but there was no let-up of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Domestically, Netanyahu is caught between growing pressure to end the war — from hostage families and a war-weary public — and demands from ultra-nationalist members of his coalition who insist there must be no let-up in efforts to annihilate Hamas.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that ceasing the military campaign would be a "grave mistake". He and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have threatened to bring down Netanyahu's government if the war ends.

But opposition leader Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party has said political cover will be provided so the Trump initiative can succeed and "we won't let them torpedo the deal".

Israel launched its air and ground war after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, Gaza health authorities say, and laid waste to the densely populated coastal enclave.