US envoys and regional figures join third day of Gaza peace talks

Senior US envoys and prominent regional figures joined the third day of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt on President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.

Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in Sharm el-Sheikh with the Qatari prime minister and the head of Turkish intelligence on what is expected to be an important day indicating whether progress can be made.

As negotiations resumed, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the movement had shown the “necessary positivity” and provided a list of names of Palestinian prisoners that Israel wanted to release in exchange for hostages being held in Gaza.

Israeli media quoted officials as saying that there was “cautious optimism.”

Trump also spoke in a positive tone, saying: “There is a real opportunity to do something.”

Witkoff and Kushner, who served as Trump’s Middle East adviser during his first term, headed to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh early Wednesday for the talks, which resumed at 11:00 (08:00 GMT).

They were also joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin.

An official told Reuters news agency that Sheikh Mohammed’s presence aims to “advance the ceasefire plan in Gaza and the hostage release agreement.”

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Trump asked him during a recent phone call to “convince” Hamas to accept his plan.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday afternoon.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC on Wednesday morning that the movement’s delegation presented a list of names of Palestinian prisoners whom Israel wants to release in exchange for the release of 48 hostages still being held in Gaza, including up to 20 who are still alive.

The list included a number of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat.

Barghouti, seen as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is serving five life sentences plus 40 years after being convicted in 2004 of planning attacks that killed five civilians.

Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted in 2008 of heading an “illegal terrorist organization” and being involved in attacks, including the assassination of an Israeli minister in 2001.

The Hamas official who spoke to the BBC said that the movement “demonstrated the positivity and responsibility necessary to achieve the required progress and complete the agreement,” but acknowledged the existence of differences between the two sides.

He added, “The mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to implementing the ceasefire,” noting that “the spirit of optimism is spreading among all participants.”

However, a Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that there were “deep gaps” in how Hamas and Israel interpreted Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

The official said disagreements emerged on all five major issues currently being discussed:

• Permanent ceasefire
• The hostages still held by Hamas were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Gaza
• Withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza
• Arrangements for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and
• Post-war governance of the territory.

Earlier, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Israeli officials as saying that they were “cautiously optimistic” that the talks could lead to an agreement.

She added that officials believe that “Trump’s success in recruiting the Turks for negotiations played a major role in convincing Hamas to accept his plan.”

In a statement issued on Tuesday marking the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that sparked the war, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not mention the Sharm el-Sheikh talks but told Israelis they were in a “time of fateful decisions.”

He added that Israel “will continue to work to achieve all the goals of the war: returning all hostages, destroying the Hamas regime, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief negotiator, who was targeted by Israel last month in an airstrike in the Qatari capital, told Egypt’s state-owned Cairo News Channel that the movement had come to conduct “serious and responsible negotiations.”

Al-Hayya said that Hamas is ready to reach an agreement, but it needs “real guarantees” from Trump and the international community that the war will end and will not resume.

Trump told reporters at the White House that the United States would do “everything we can to make sure everyone adheres to the agreement” if Hamas and Israel can agree on it.

“I believe there is a possibility to achieve peace in the Middle East. It is something that goes beyond the situation in Gaza. We want the hostages to be released immediately,” he said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also called on all parties to agree to Trump’s plan, describing it as a “historic opportunity” to “end this tragic conflict.”

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

At least 67,183 people have been killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip. Its numbers are considered reliable by the United Nations and other international bodies, although Israel disputes these numbers.

The ministry said a further 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 people since famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied there is a famine in Gaza and said Israel is facilitating the delivery of food and other aid.

Additional reporting by Helen Sullivan

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