WASHINGTON: US envoy Jared Kushner, when asked about the prospect of a Palestinian state, which most governments worldwide now recognize but Israel and the United States do not, said it was &ldquo;too early to tell.&rdquo; Israel should help the Palestinians &quot;thrive&quot; if it seeks regional integration after the Gaza war is over, said Kushner, who has been involved in mediation efforts for a ceasefire. &quot;The biggest message that we&#39;ve tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better,&quot; Kushner told CBS News in an interview that aired on Sunday. The interview preceded fresh Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. Kushner, who is also US President Donald Trump&#39;s son-in-law, helped broker landmark deals during his first term in office that saw several Arab governments normalize ties with Israel. &lsquo;Joint security and economic opportunity&rsquo;In the CBS interview, he said that the situation remained &quot;very difficult,&quot; but he was looking for &quot;joint security and economic opportunity&quot; to guarantee that Israelis and Palestinians &quot;can live peacefully side by side in a durable way.&quot; On Monday, Kushner returned to Israel alongside Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff for a visit that is expected to see them meet with Israeli government officials. Referring to the situation in Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire began, Kushner said: &quot;Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions.&quot; But he argued that if &quot;a viable alternative&quot; emerges, &quot;Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.&quot;

Middle East

Says, 'biggest message we've tried to convey to the Israeli leadership is … if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive.' 

 ‘Too early to tell,’ says US envoy Kushner about prospect of Palestinian state  

JERUSALEM: The United Nations&#39; aid chief took stock of the monumental task of restoring the basic necessities in the devastated Gaza Strip on Saturday, and Israel received the remains of another hostage as the ceasefire entered its second week. In a short convoy of white UN jeeps, relief coordinator Tom Fletcher and his team wound their way through the twisted rubble of shattered homes to inspect a wastewater treatment plant in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City. &quot;I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing, and to see the devastation, this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland, and it&#39;s absolutely devastating to see,&quot; he told AFP. Reduced to ruins&nbsp;The densely packed cities of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, have been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment by the Israeli army. Just over a week since US President Donald Trump helped broker a truce, the main border crossing to Egypt has yet to be reopened, but hundreds of trucks roll in daily via Israeli checkpoints, and aid is being distributed. Hamas has returned the final 20 surviving hostages it was holding and has begun to hand over the remains of another 28 who died.On Friday night, it turned over a set of remains identified by Israel as Eliyahu Margalit. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Digging latrines&nbsp;</h2>Surveying the damaged pumping equipment and a grim lake of sewage at the Sheikh Radwan wastewater plant, Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a &quot;massive, massive job&quot;. The British diplomat said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes trying to dig latrines in the ruins. &quot;They&#39;re telling me most of all they want dignity,&quot; he said. &quot;We&#39;ve got to get the power back on so we can start to get the sanitation system back in place. &lsquo;60-day plan&rsquo;&nbsp;&quot;We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school.&quot; According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military&#39;s civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday, some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel. Relief agencies have called for the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to be reopened to speed the flow of food, fuel, and medicines, and Turkey has a team of rescue specialists waiting at the border to help find bodies in the rubble. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Hostage remains&nbsp;</h2>Israel&#39;s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the ceasefire but is under pressure at home to restrict access to Gaza until the remaining bodies of the hostages taken during Hamas&#39;s brutal attacks have been returned. On Saturday, his office confirmed that the latest body, returned by Hamas via the Red Cross on Friday night, had been identified as Margalit. In a statement confirming he had been identified and his remains returned to his family, Netanyahu&#39;s office said &quot;we will not compromise ... and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen abductees, down to the last one&quot;. Committed to the agreement&nbsp;Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Friday that the group &quot;continues to uphold its commitment to the ceasefire agreement... and it will continue working to complete the full prisoner exchange process.&quot; Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, negotiated by Trump and regional mediators, the Palestinian group has returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 10 out of 28 deceased ones.

The densely packed cities of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, have been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment by the Israeli army.

UN aid chief foresees 'massive job' ahead on tour of ruined Gaza

WASHINGTON DC/JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Hamas must lay down its arms and turn in its weapons.&nbsp; &quot;If they don&#39;t disarm, we will disarm them,&quot; Trump told reporters at the White House a day after visiting the Middle East to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire. &quot;And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.&quot; He said those who agree to &quot;decommission their weapons&quot; will be given amnesty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained the war cannot end until Hamas surrenders its weapons and cedes control of Gaza, a demand the fighters have rejected.&nbsp; &quot;First, Hamas has to give up its arms, and second, you want to make sure that there are no weapons factories inside Gaza. There&#39;s no smuggling of weapons into Gaza. That&#39;s demilitarization,&quot; he said in an interview with CBS News.&nbsp;Meanwhile,&nbsp;Hamas is reported to be fighting what it calls Israel-supported &quot;outlaws.&quot;&nbsp;In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, black-masked armed men have resumed street patrols.&nbsp; A Hamas security unit has been conducting operations against armed clans and gangs.&nbsp;&quot;Intense clashes broke out -- and are still ongoing at the moment -- as part of efforts to eliminate collaborators,&quot; said witness Yahya, who asked not to be named in full for fear of retribution. Reassuring presenceHamas has, since it crushed rival Fatah in armed clashes in 2007, been the dominant Palestinian faction in Gaza. For many Palestinians rebuilding their homes and lives amid Gaza&#39;s rubble, the sight of the militants was reassuring.&nbsp;&quot;After the war ended and the police spread out in the streets, we started to feel safe,&quot; said 34-year-old Abu Fadi Al-Banna in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.&nbsp;Hamdiya Shammiya, 40, who was driven from her home in northern Gaza by the fighting to seek shelter in the southern city of Khan Yunis, agreed.&nbsp;&quot;Thank God the war is finally over. We&#39;ve started to breathe a little,&quot; she said.&nbsp;While Palestinians sought stability, Israeli families stepped up pressure for the return of the remains of deceased hostages still held in Gaza. Israel to reopen Gaza&#39;s Rafah crossingMeanwhile, Israel said it will allow Gaza&#39;s key Rafah crossing to reopen on Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian territory, AFP reported.&nbsp;&quot;Six hundred trucks of humanitarian aid will be dispatched (Wednesday) to the Gaza Strip by the UN, approved international organizations, the private sector and donor countries,&quot; Israeli public broadcaster KAN said on its website without citing sources.&nbsp;The Israeli public broadcaster said the reopening of the southern Rafah crossing, decided by the &quot;political echelon&quot;, follows Hamas handing over the remains of four more hostages late Tuesday, under the ceasefire deal for the Palestinian territory. Prominent Gaza hospital chief remains in Israeli prisonIn another development, more than 100 medical personnel seized during raids on hospitals remain in Israeli prisons, including Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, a hospital director who became the face of the struggle to keep treating patients under Israeli siege and bombardment, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.&nbsp; Despite widespread calls for his release, Abu Safiya was not among the Palestinian detainees and prisoners freed Monday in exchange for 20 hostages held by Hamas.&nbsp; Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned without charge by Israel for nearly 10 months.&nbsp; It was not known if Abu Safiya, 52, might still be released. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His family said on social media there were &ldquo;no confirmed details about the date of his release,&rdquo; adding that freed detainees described him as &ldquo;in good health and strong spirits.&rdquo; The Israeli military said Abu Safiya was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas.&nbsp; Health Workers Watch, which documents detentions from Gaza, said at least 115 medical workers remain in custody, as well as the remains of four who died while in Israeli prisons, where rights groups and witnesses have reported frequent abuse.

Says those Hamas members who agree to 'decommission their weapons' will be given amnesty. World powers endorse peace agreement, saying Gaza will be demilitarized, Hamas will have no leadership role.

Trump on Hamas: 'If they don't disarm, we will disarm them'

Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed peacemaker who has campaigned for a Nobel Prize, finally got a camera-ready diplomatic victory on Monday as world leaders flew to Egypt for the signing of the ceasefire and hostage-release deal he brokered between Israel and Hamas.&nbsp;But if lasting peace is to take root, analysts and diplomats say, Trump will have to maintain pressure on the man whose support he&#39;ll need in the next phases of his plan: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.&nbsp;US presidents from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden have found the strong-willed Israeli leader difficult to work with, and even Trump administration officials have been frustrated by some Israeli military strikes they see as undermining US policy.&nbsp;But this month, Trump managed to push Netanyahu into accepting his framework for a broader peace deal while persuading other Middle Eastern countries to convince Hamas to return all the Israeli hostages, its key leverage in the war.&nbsp;The work could get harder from here, however.&nbsp;Israel and Hamas remain sharply divided over many aspects of Trump&#39;s 20-point plan, and, as Israel prepares for next year&#39;s elections, Netanyahu&#39;s approach may shift as he attempts to keep his right-wing coalition together.&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;re entering a political year where everything is related to campaigns, and Netanyahu&#39;s calculations may flip from caving to pressure to trying to ensure his political survival,&quot; said Nimrod Goren, the president of Mitvim, an Israeli foreign policy think tank.&nbsp;The strength of Trump&#39;s peace plan, said the diplomats and analysts, is also its weakness.&nbsp;The document at the heart of the deal leaves much undefined, and neither side actually agreed to the fine print of each term. That vagueness was key to getting both sides to sign on, but it also means some of the most difficult diplomatic work is just beginning.&nbsp;Among the potential sticking points of Trump&#39;s peace plan is an agreement that Hamas disarm and play no role in Gaza&#39;s future administration. While Hamas agreed to Trump&#39;s plan generally, the group&#39;s official response made no mention of those specific terms, and Hamas leaders have indicated that they do, in fact, see a role for themselves in governing a post-war Gaza.&nbsp;&quot;There are any number of ways this could go sideways,&quot; said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at Washington&#39;s Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former State Department official.&nbsp;&quot;It&#39;s hard to remember an international agreement that left so much to be worked out later.&quot;&nbsp;The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.&nbsp;A senior US official suggested that Trump had gained influence with Netanyahu in part by strongly supporting Israel on other important matters.&nbsp;Trump&#39;s first administration formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the disputed Golan Heights as part of the country, two things long sought by the Israeli government.&nbsp;&quot;One thing President Trump&#39;s done with Israel ... is that he&#39;s not trying to be a middle-of-the-roader,&quot; the US official said. &quot;He&#39;s basically stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel 100%. But because of that, he&#39;s been able to help guide them in the right direction.&quot;&nbsp;A sterner TrumpTrump has a mixed record when it comes to applying political pressure on Netanyahu.&nbsp;In July, Israel bombed the Syrian defense ministry in Damascus even as the US had made a point of expanding ties with the new Syrian government. The US president gave political cover in Gaza to Netanyahu for months amid mounting humanitarian concerns among European and Arab allies.&nbsp;But in recent weeks, a sterner Trump has emerged. He forced Netanyahu to call the leader of Qatar to apologize after a failed bombing raid targeting Hamas negotiators in that country in September. Ultimately, he muscled Netanyahu into signing onto his 20-point plan despite the Israeli leader&#39;s misgivings.&nbsp;At the moment, said Alterman, the Middle East expert, Trump can likely exert leverage over Netanyahu given the US president&#39;s significant popularity in Israel.&nbsp;&quot;Trump&#39;s greatest leverage is he&#39;s much more politically popular in Israel than Netanyahu,&quot; Alterman said, &quot;and he can either support Netanyahu&#39;s political future or sabotage it.&quot;&nbsp;At the speech before the Israeli parliament on Monday, Trump playfully poked at the Israeli leader in ways that indicated he did not feel the need to treat Netanyahu with special deference.&nbsp;&quot;Well, see, now you can be a little bit nicer, Bibi, because you&#39;re not at war anymore,&quot; Trump said to laughs.&nbsp;But next year&#39;s elections could change Netanyahu&#39;s political calculations in ways that are difficult to predict.&nbsp;Supporters of right-wing politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich could, in theory, threaten Netanyahu&#39;s governing coalition if they are sufficiently angered by the decision to halt military operations against Hamas.&nbsp;Analysts warn that foot-dragging by the Palestinian group over disarming could lead right-wing elements of the coalition to pressure Netanyahu to resume military operations in Gaza, effectively scuttling Trump&#39;s deal.&nbsp;&quot;We are troubled with the fact that Hamas still, today, declares it will stay in power in Gaza,&quot; Simcha Rothman, a member of the Religious Zionism party and of Netanyahu&#39;s governing coalition, told Reuters on Monday.&nbsp;&quot;We are not happy with any deal that is not a total surrender of Hamas ... We will not accept any partial victory.&quot;&nbsp;Another issue that could prove an irritant: a provision in the peace plan that admits the possibility of a future Palestinian state, which analysts say most Israelis would struggle to accept after Hamas&#39; cross-border attack of October 7, 2023.&nbsp;Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, said that if government and opposition politicians&#39; campaign heavily against the creation of such a state, it could limit the willingness of Arab countries to push Hamas to fulfill its obligations under Trump&#39;s deal.&nbsp;&quot;That was a very important inclusion to get the support of the Arab states to do their part,&quot; Shapiro said.&nbsp;&quot;If the political discourse is a full-on rejection of a Palestinian state for all time, I think that could color the enthusiasm of the Arab parties to play the parts that they need to play.&quot;

Secures a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, but analysts warn that vague terms, Netanyahu's political pressures, and Hamas' disarmament could jeopardize lasting peace.

Trump convinced Netanyahu to take a deal. Can he keep him onboard?

DOHA: A Hamas source close to the group&#39;s negotiating committee told AFP on Sunday that it will not participate in post-war Gaza governance, as world leaders prepare to converge on Egypt for a Gaza peace summit. The source&#39;s comments come days after an Israel-Hamas ceasefire came into effect, and as both sides discuss implementing US President Donald Trump&#39;s 20-point plan to end the war, which calls for Hamas&#39; disarmament and for the group not to be involved in running post-war Gaza. &quot;For Hamas, the governance of the Gaza Strip is a closed issue. Hamas will not participate at all in the transitional phase, which means it has relinquished control of the Strip, but it remains a fundamental part of the Palestinian fabric,&quot; the source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Unlike other more top-heavy militant organisations in the region, Hamas&#39; leadership has in the past been divided on key issues, including on the future administration of Gaza. But where there appears to be no division among top members is on the question of disarmament, which the group has long described as a red line. &quot;Hamas agrees to a long-term truce, and for its weapons not to be used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza,&quot; the source said. Another Hamas official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive topics had earlier told AFP that Hamas&#39; disarmament was &quot;out of the question&quot;. The first clause of Trump&#39;s 20-point plan calls for Gaza to become a &quot;deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors&quot;. The plan also states Hamas will not have a role in future governance of the Strip, and that its military infrastructure and weapons should be &quot;destroyed and not rebuilt&quot;. Under Trump&#39;s plan, a temporary technocratic and apolitical Palestinian committee would be charged with the day-to-day running of public services. The source close to the negotiators said they had asked for mediator Egypt to call a meeting before the end of next week to agree on the composition of this committee, adding that &quot;the names are almost ready&quot;. &quot;Hamas, along with the other factions, have submitted 40 names. There is absolutely no veto over them, and none of them belong to Hamas,&quot; he added.

Palestinian children walk past destroyed buildings in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a pause in their war and the release of the remaining hostages. (AP)

A Hamas source said the group will not govern post-war Gaza, supporting a technocratic committee instead, amid US-brokered ceasefire and peace plan talks.

Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza after war, says source close to negotiators

SHARM El SHEIKH: Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a ceasefire deal to free the living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Here is what we know so far about the agreement that was reached in indirect talks in Egypt:&nbsp;Hostage, prisoner releases&nbsp;Hamas will release 20 living hostages in one go as part of the first phase of the deal, according to a source close to the Hamas negotiating team. Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners: 250 among those serving life sentences, and 1,700 others detained since the start of the war, a top Hamas official within Hamas told AFP, also on condition of anonymity. There has been no indication that Israel will disclose the names of those set for release. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement to secure the release of hostages would only take effect after receiving cabinet approval. &quot;Contrary to Arab media reports, the 72-hour countdown will begin only after the agreement is approved in the cabinet meeting, which is expected in the evening hours,&quot; Netanyahu&#39;s office said. Of the 251 people, Hamas still hold 47 in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.&nbsp;Prisoner lists&nbsp;A key point in the negotiations was a list of Palestinian prisoners submitted by Hamas which it wants released from Israeli jails in the truce&#39;s first phase. High-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti -- from Hamas&#39;s rival, the Fatah movement -- is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media.&nbsp;400 trucks of aid&nbsp;A daily minimum of 400 trucks of aid will enter the Gaza Strip for the first five days of the ceasefire, to be increased in following days, the Hamas source said. It also provides for the &quot;return of displaced persons from the south of the Gaza Strip to Gaza (City) and the north immediately,&quot; the source added. The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said his agency was prepared to &quot;scale up its work to meet the dire health needs of patients across Gaza, and to support rehabilitation of the destroyed health system&quot;. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees welcomed the deal as a &quot;huge relief&quot;, and said it was ready to flood Gaza with desperately-needed food.&quot;We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months,&quot; the agency&#39;s chief Philippe Lazzarini said on X.&nbsp;&#39;Scheduled withdrawals&#39;&nbsp;The deal stipulates &quot;scheduled withdrawals&quot; of Israeli troops, the Hamas top official said, and includes &quot;guarantees from President Trump and the mediators&quot;. The Israeli military said on Thursday it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza as part of the deal.&nbsp;Key questions remain&nbsp;Trump&#39;s 20-point peace plan, on which the indirect negotiations were based, calls for the disarmament of Hamas and for post-war Gaza to be ruled by a transitional authority headed by Trump himself. But these points are yet to be addressed. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he hoped the Gaza deal could lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. But Netanyahu and members of his cabinet have repeatedly vowed to prevent this from happening.&nbsp;What next?&nbsp;The deal will be formally signed later on Thursday in Egypt, a source with knowledge of the agreement told AFP on condition of anonymity. Israel&#39;s cabinet will meet Thursday at 1500 GMT to discuss a plan to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza, a government statement said. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will not vote in favour. A Hamas official said negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire would begin &quot;immediately&quot;. Negotiations in Egypt&#39;s resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh are taking place under lock and key in a conference center. Al-Qahera News, linked to Egypt&#39;s state, broadcast footage showing negotiators from Hamas, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and the United States embracing and walking in high spirits. But Hamas and Israeli delegates were positioned in two different rooms, with mediators shuttling between them, and with no indication the foes would ever meet.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire involving the release of 20 hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The deal includes aid delivery, troop withdrawals, and indirect talks in Egypt, with key political questions unresolved.

What we know about the new Gaza deal

Web Desk

US president says all hostages will be released very soon, Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed-upon line; adds that all parties will be treated fairly.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to first phase of peace plan: Trump 

CAIRO: Hamas said Wednesday that &quot;optimism&quot; was prevailing in indirect talks with Israel aimed at ending the Gaza war, with the Palestinian group submitting a list of prisoners it wants released in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages as part of an agreement. The talks aim to thrash out a plan to implement a 20-point peace proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump last month, and which both Israel and Hamas have responded positively to. The plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages, Hamas&#39;s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. On Wednesday, Qatar&#39;s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Turkey&#39;s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Trump&#39;s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the president&#39;s son-in-law Jared Kushner were all due in Sharm El-Sheikh. &quot;The mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all parties,&quot; senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP from Sharm El-Sheikh. List of prisoners&nbsp;The Palestinian group submitted a list of prisoners it wants to be released in the first phase of the truce &quot;in accordance with the agreed-upon criteria and numbers&quot;, Nunu added. In exchange, Hamas is set to release 47 hostages, both alive and dead.&nbsp;&quot;There&#39;s a real chance that we could do something,&quot; Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. &quot;I think there&#39;s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East. It&#39;s something even beyond the Gaza situation. We want a release of the hostages immediately.&quot; &lsquo;Everything possible&rsquo;&nbsp;Trump said the United States would do &quot;everything possible to make sure everyone adheres to the deal&quot; if Hamas and Israel did agree on a ceasefire. Israel&#39;s military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,160 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, figures the United Nations considers credible. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Global pressure &nbsp;</h2>Global pressure to end the war has escalated, with much of Gaza flattened, a UN-declared famine unfolding and Israeli hostage families still longing for their loved ones&#39; return. A UN probe last month accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.&nbsp;Hundreds of thousands of protesters joined pro-Palestinian mass demonstrations in cities across the world last weekend calling for an immediate end to the war, including in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Britain. In Gaza, people were desperate for an end to a war that has upended their lives, interrupted their children&#39;s education, and left many families scarred by loss and grief. &quot;My dream is for the war to end now, not tomorrow,&quot; said Abeer Abu Said, a 21-year-old in Gaza who has lost seven family members in the war. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">&#39;Guarantees from President Trump&#39;</h2>Key to the negotiations will be the names of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas will push for. According to Egyptian state-linked media, high-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti -- from the Fatah movement -- is among those the group wants to see released. He has been imprisoned since 2002, and was sentenced to life behind bars in 2004 on murder charges. More broadly, Hamas&#39;s top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group wants &quot;guarantees from President Trump and the sponsor countries that the war will end once and for all&quot;. Minister&#39;s visit condemned A Palestinian source close to the Hamas negotiating team said Tuesday&#39;s session included Hamas discussing &quot;the initial maps presented by the Israeli side regarding the withdrawal of troops as well as the mechanism and timetable for the hostage-prisoner exchange&quot;. Meanwhile, Hamas has condemned a visit by Israel&#39;s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the Al-Aqsa compound on Wednesday morning.

The Palestinian group has expressed optimism in ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel, involving a proposed US-backed plan including prisoner exchanges, hostage releases, and Israeli withdrawal; Hamas also condemned visit by Israel's far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the Al-Aqsa compound.

'Optimism prevails' in Gaza talks with Israel: Hamas 

Doha: Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will attend the ongoing Gaza peace talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said. Sheikh Mohammed&#39;s &quot;participation in the meetings... comes at a critical stage of the talks, reaffirming the determination of the mediators to reach an agreement that would bring an end to the catastrophic war in the Gaza Strip,&quot; the ministry said Tuesday on X.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will attend the ongoing Gaza peace talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said

Qatar PM to join Gaza peace talks in Egypt: foreign ministry

JERUSALEM: Hamas said Tuesday it was working to overcome &quot;all obstacles&quot; as the Palestinian leaders held indirect talks with Israel aimed at ending the two-year Gaza war. &quot;The delegation of the movement participating in the current negotiations in Egypt seeks to surmount all obstacles to achieving an agreement that fulfils the aspirations of our people in Gaza,&quot; senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said in a televised speech.

Europe

Hamas said it is working to overcome all obstacles in ongoing indirect talks with Israel in Egypt, aiming to reach an agreement that meets the aspirations of the Palestinian people in Gaza after two years of war

Articles tagged with "Hamas"