Blinken optimistic of Gaza truce 'in next two weeks' as Hamas and Israel remain at odds over terms

Details of hostage release by militant group and Israeli stance on withdrawal and long-term ceasefire are stumbling blocks

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Washington wanted to see a ceasefire deal in Gaza concluded and the hostages freed in the next two weeks.

But sources told The National that Israel and Hamas remain at odds, despite a renewed bid under way in Qatar to broker a deal.

“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Mr Blinken told a news conference in South Korea.

The renewed push to reach a deal to pause the 15-month Gaza war between Israel and Hamas comes as US President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on January 20. He has said that there will be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released by the time he takes over the presidency from Joe Biden.

It also comes amid a surge in Israeli military action in Gaza, where 105 people were killed in air strikes over the weekend, according to Palestinian medics. Israel's military said it had killed dozens of militants.

Speaking on Monday, the sources, who are familiar with the negotiations, said mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt were trying to narrow the gap between Israel and Hamas over the details and mechanism of releasing the hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Hamas on Sunday provided several regional and international news outlets with the names of 34 Israeli hostages it had approved for release, as part of a deal that could eventually lead to a permanent ceasefire. However, the list did provide a breakdown of who among the 34 hostages was still alive, according to the sources.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Hamas had not provided a hostage list.

Smoke billows above the Gaza Strip during Israel attacks on Sunday that killed about 30 people across the territory, according to local health officials. Reuters

Hamas and the other groups are believed to be holding around 100 Israeli and other hostages. The Israeli military says about a third of them have died in captivity, but the sources claimed that fewer than that number have perished. However, they did not give precise figures.

Senior Israeli negotiators were dispatched over the weekend to Doha where they joined Hamas officials and US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the Qatari capital.

Hamas said on Friday it was committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible. A Hamas official told Reuters any agreement to return Israeli hostages would hinge on a deal for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or end to the war.

“However, until now, the occupation continues to be obstinate over an agreement over the issues of the ceasefire and withdrawal, and has made no step forward,” said the official.

Mr Netanyahu has consistently said the war will end only when Hamas is fully eradicated.

Amr Abu Hashem, dressed as Santa Claus, sits with a Palestinian family on the roof of their destroyed home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Sunday. EPA

Hamas, according to the sources, wants to free the hostages one by one, every other day, and has resisted Israeli demands for a list of names of all captives held in Gaza. It is also demanding that Israeli forces retreat to the margins of the Strip, closer to the Israeli border, during the release of captives.

Israel, for its part, is insisting that displaced Palestinians in Gaza can return to the north of the coastal enclave only if they agree to a security screening carried out by its military and intelligence agents.

The sources said Hamas has agreed in principle to a temporary ceasefire of up to 40 or 60 days and dropped its demand for a written guarantee from mediators that Israel will continue talks until a permanent ceasefire is reached, making do with verbal assurances.

A senior Hamas official told The National on Friday that “optimism is greater this time compared to before” in the negotiations in Qatar, after the sources said there was significant progress in the latest round.

“We are going into details, including the names of the prisoners and the specific withdrawal areas, and there is more seriousness than before,” the official said.

However, the official said he does not expect “a quick agreement now. The belief is that the Israelis want to present the agreement as a gift to Trump, two days before his inauguration, or two days after his inauguration, and not to Biden.”

Israeli demonstrators outside the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem hold placards of hostages held in Gaza, in a protest calling for their release. AP

Israel has also tentatively agreed in the Qatar talks to a gradual withdrawal from a narrow strip of land that runs the length of Egypt’s border with Gaza on the Palestinian side, which includes Rafah, the only crossing that is not controlled by Israel, the sources added.

Israel captured the area known as the Philadelphi Corridor, in May, a move that has deeply angered Egypt, which responded by closing its side of the crossing.

Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has interpreted the Israeli action as a breach of that accord and subsequent agreements.

The sources have said the main hurdle to reaching a deal is that Hamas is convinced that Israel will resume its military operations after all the hostages are freed and the temporary truce ends. The group's leadership also believes that Israel has no intention of fully withdrawing from the enclave, they added.

The Israel-Gaza war was sparked by an attack by Hamas-led militants on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. They killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.

Israel responded with air strikes and a ground offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 45,800 Palestinians and injured more than twice that number, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The conflict has also displaced the majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents and razed much of the enclave's built-up areas.