US-led Gaza truce negotiations on cusp of reaching agreement
US-led Gaza truce negotiations are close to reaching a deal, with officials from Hamas and Washington finalising details in direct negotiations in Qatar on Monday, sources told The National.
They said the agreement will provide for a 21-day truce and the initial release by Hamas of up to six hostages, in return for a number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It also provides for the resumption of aid relief into the enclave, two months after Israel halted the flow of life-saving supplies.
An Israeli delegation made up of officials from the Mossad spy agency, domestic intelligence service Shin Bet and the military was due in Cairo on Monday. They will discuss logistics for the resumption of aid and the arrival in Egypt of Palestinian detainees travelling on to live in exile in other countries, the sources said.
Hamas, in a goodwill gesture towards the US, was due to release dual US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander later on Monday, a move the sources described as indicative of the progress made in the Hamas-US talks.
The reported progress comes a day before US President Donald Trump travels to the Middle East on a three-nation tour that would take him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
The sources said US mediators in Doha were considering demands by Hamas that the truce last for 70 days and that the Trump administration provide a written guarantee that negotiations for the end to the Gaza war and an Israeli withdrawal from the enclave would begin at a later stage.
"There has been considerable progress towards an agreement in direct negotiations between Hamas officials and US mediators led by Adam Boehler," said one source, referring to the US envoy for hostage affairs.
"A deal may be announced within a day or a matter of hours," the source said.
Mr Boehler, who led the first known direct negotiations between the US and Hamas in March, is leading American mediators in the current talks with Hamas in Doha, the sources said. Their first meeting was on Sunday, when they held talks that lasted for more than three hours at a suburban hotel in Doha, they said.
Hamas wanted seriously wounded Palestinian civilians taken out of Gaza to receive treatment, as well as medical supplies for the group's wounded fighters and the remaining living hostages it is holding, the sources said.
The Israeli military says Hamas is holding 59 hostages, of whom about 24 are believed to be still alive.
The Gaza war began in October 2023 after an attack by Hamas on southern Israel that killed 1,200. More than 52,800 Palestinians have been killed since and more than twice that number wounded, health authorities in Gaza have said. Much of the enclave's built-up areas has been reduced to rubble in Israel's ground and aerial operations.
A 45-day truce brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar ended on March 1, but Gaza remained relatively quiet until March 18 when Israel resumed military operations.
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