Gaza ceasefire talks resume in Doha but breakthrough remains elusive

Talks began after a two-month hiatus with Hamas and Israel blaming each other for the deadlock

Relatives, friends and supporters of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas attend a protest calling for a ceasefire and for the release of the hostages in Tel Aviv on 26 October. EPA

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Gaza ceasefire talks resumed on Sunday with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators presenting Israel and Hamas a blueprint for a brief but extendable truce and a hostage and prisoners swap, sources told The National.

The talks in Doha are the first since negotiations ended in August, with both sides accusing each other of acting in bad faith. They are also the first since Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza this month, a development the US has said was helpful to efforts to reach a pause in the war in Gaza.

The sources said the latest proposals on the table provide for an initial truce of up to 10 days during which humanitarian aid will flow into Gaza and a limited exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israel would take place. They also provide for indirect Israeli-Hamas negotiations to occur as soon as the initial truce comes into effect.

The sources also told The National that extending the truce depends on both sides respecting its terms, a smooth swap of hostages for Palestinian detainees and an agreement to continue negotiating. The Israeli and other hostages held by Hamas would be released in batches of five, with priority likely to be given to US and dual US-Israeli citizens.

The proposals make no mention of a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza or the return of Palestinians displaced from their homes since the war began in October last year – long-standing Hamas conditions.

Israel is, in return for the freedom of the hostages, offering to hand over Mr Sinwar’s body for burial in Gaza and safe passage for Hamas officials in the enclave along with a pledge it would not hunt them down in exile. Israel also wants Hamas fighters to surrender their weapons.

It is understood Hamas is unlikely to agree to any of these Israeli conditions.

“It’s not Hamas though that will cause the latest round of negotiations to fail,” said one of the sources. “Israel does not necessarily want the war to end,” they added, claiming that Israel's military was planning to push out most of the residents of northern Gaza and establish a buffer zone there.

Israel, they said, also had no intention of pulling out its forces from a narrow strip of land that runs the entire length of the Egypt-Gaza border on the Palestinian side, which includes the Rafah land crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Israel captured the Salah Al Din corridor in May. Egypt maintains that Israel’s action breached its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and subsequent accords.

Hamas is believed to be holding about 100 hostages, of whom as many as 40 are thought to have died in captivity, according to the Israeli military. The hostages were among about 250 abducted by Hamas fighters when they attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 and igniting the war in Gaza. More than 100 of the hostages were released during a week-long truce in November.

More than 42,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. More than twice that number have been injured and most of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, often multiple times.

The latest proposals were finalised during a meeting on Sunday in Cairo between top Egyptian intelligence officials and a delegation from Mossad and Shin Bet.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who toured the Middle East last week, has not spoken publicly about the reported plans. However, he said in Israel last week that US proposals for a Gaza ceasefire announced in May remained on the table but that Washington was open to other ideas.

Mr Blinken’s Middle East tour – his 11th since the Gaza war began a year ago – is perhaps the last push by the Joe Biden administration to end the war on the enclave and Lebanon before the US presidential election on November 5.

The focus of Mr Blinken’s discussions in the region last week was what is known as the “day after,” or the political and security arrangements for postwar Gaza, as well as the reconstruction of the enclave.

One scenario discussed by Mr Blinken was finding a successor for the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and forming a government of technocrats to run both the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Within that scenario, former Palestinian foreign affairs minister Nasser Al Qudwa is the top candidate for the president’s job while former prime minister Salam Fayyad is tipped to return to the job he lost in 2013.

The formation of a technocratic government to run the Palestinian territories until presidential and legislative elections are held was occasionally floated as part of discussions on postwar Gaza, but failure to reach a ceasefire and a hostages-for-prisoner swap has pushed it down the priority list of the mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US.