Israeli safety and coverage chiefs had been anticipated to reach in Qatar on Sunday for high-level talks a few proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza that will see hostages launched within the closing days of President Biden’s time period and earlier than Donald J. Trump takes workplace.
Biden administration officers have been urgent for a deal that will develop into a part of the departing president’s legacy, and Mr. Trump has warned that “all hell will get away within the Center East” if Hamas doesn’t launch the hostages earlier than he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Decrease-level negotiations have been underway in latest weeks after months of impasse.
Whereas some progress has been made, disagreements stay on a number of key factors, together with the timing and extent of Israel’s redeployments and withdrawal from Gaza and its willingness to finally finish the struggle, based on a number of officers and a Palestinian acquainted with the matter. They had been talking on the situation of anonymity as a result of the talks are being held in secrecy and so they weren’t licensed to debate particulars publicly.
Representatives of the departing and incoming U.S. presidents have been cooperating on the problem, the Biden administration has stated, whereas Qatar and Egypt are mediating between Israel and Hamas.
Brett M. McGurk, Mr. Biden’s Center East coordinator, was already in Doha, the Qatar capital, placing collectively the ultimate particulars of a textual content settlement to current to the 2 sides, Jake Sullivan, the president’s nationwide safety adviser, stated on “State of the Union” on CNN on Sunday.
“We’re very, very shut and but being very shut nonetheless means we’re far as a result of till you truly get throughout the end line we’re not there,” Mr. Sullivan stated.
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s meant Center East envoy, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Saturday. On Friday, Mr. Witkoff was in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and met the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, for talks that targeted on efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza, based on Qatar’s Overseas Ministry.
Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace introduced late Saturday that he had mentioned the problem with Israel’s safety chiefs and with negotiators from each the departing and incoming American administrations. He additionally instructed Israel’s prime negotiators — together with David Barnea, the pinnacle of the Mossad intelligence company — to go away for Qatar with the purpose of advancing a deal, Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace stated.
Disagreements between Israel and Hamas stay on the basic problem of the permanency of a cease-fire, with Mr. Netanyahu nonetheless unwilling to declare an finish of the struggle as a part of a three-phase settlement that was laid out by Mr. Biden final Could.
Israel is insisting on a vaguer system that leaves room for ambiguity, based on the Palestinian acquainted with the matter and two Israeli officers. One other official acquainted with the matter stated the People had been supposed to offer mediators with a assure that the USA would work to carry the struggle to an finish, although Israel has not agreed to any precise phrasing.
Hamas can also be demanding detailed maps from Israel exhibiting the place it’s going to withdraw to, however Israel has not offered them, based on the officers and the Palestinian acquainted with the matter. They added that disagreements stay concerning the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from the Philadelphi Hall, a strip of land abutting Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Practically 100 hostages who had been seized in the course of the Hamas-led assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, stay in Gaza, out of roughly 250 who had been taken. Israel believes not less than a 3rd of the remaining hostages are lifeless.
Israel and Hamas have each proven indicators of desirous to resolve the excellent points, as stress mounts from the USA and the Israeli public. Final week Hamas representatives indicated that the group had permitted an Israeli listing of 34 hostages to be launched within the first stage of an settlement.
However Israel stated final week that it had not acquired any data from Hamas relating to the standing of the hostages showing on the listing, which incorporates these it considers probably the most weak and pressing circumstances: girls and youngsters, males over 50 and a number of other sick or injured hostages.
Israel has demanded a listing from Hamas of which hostages stay alive. With out that, Israeli officers say, there might be no settlement on what number of Palestinian prisoners Israel can be keen to launch in change for them. As of Sunday morning, Israel had not acquired a listing of stay hostages, based on one of many officers acquainted with the matter.
The physique of one of many hostages whose title appeared on the listing of 34 — Youssef Ziyadne, 53, an Arab citizen of Israel — was situated final week by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza together with the stays of his son, Hamza Ziyadne, who was additionally captured in the course of the 2023 assault.
The Israeli army introduced the stays of each males again to Israel for burial.
Mr. Sullivan, the U.S. nationwide safety adviser, stated that Mr. Biden would have a name quickly with Mr. Netanyahu however harassed that the principle impediment to a deal has been Hamas.
“We’re not by any stretch of the creativeness setting this apart,” Mr. Sullivan stated. “There’s a chance this comes collectively. There’s additionally a chance, as has occurred so many instances earlier than, that Hamas particularly stays intransigent.”
Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.