U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian intermediaries have offered a plan to bridge the final gaps in a cease-fire proposal that they hope could soon end the war in the Gaza Strip after more than 10 months of fighting.
President Joe Biden announced the framework for the deal on May 31. Negotiators have been working in the weeks since to get Israel and the Hamas terrorist group to work through the remaining gaps to end the fighting, and to allow the exchange of hostages held by Hamas and prisoners held by Israel. Representatives from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, which worked as the chief intermediaries, concluded three days of discussions in the Qatari capital of Doha on Aug. 16, signaling that a final deal is close.
Hamas officials did not attend negotiations.
The three intermediaries said they intend to meet in the Egyptian capital of Cairo before the end of this week “with the aim to conclude the deal under the terms put forward today.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel to Israel and Egypt from Aug. 17 to 20 to work on the negotiations.
The May 31 framework Biden laid out entailed a three-part plan. The first phase would entail an at least six-week pause in fighting, with Hamas releasing some more of the hostages they took from Israel on Oct. 7, and Israel pulling its troops back from major population centers. In this first phase, Israel would also release detained Palestinians and allow a surge in humanitarian supplies to reach the embattled Gaza Strip.
The second phase would rely on continued negotiations. The initial six-week cease-fire established in the first phase could be extended as long as all sides remain committed to the talks. If those talks prove successful, Hamas will release its remaining living captives, and Israeli forces will withdraw from the Gaza Strip altogether. The temporary cease-fire would become permanent.
The third and final phase would see Hamas return the remains of any hostages killed during the course of the war, and Israel would allow reconstruction of the Gaza Strip to commence.
Biden shared a brief optimistic note about the latest negotiations as he hosted an unrelated signing event at the White House on Aug. 16.
“One of the reasons why I was late for you all, I was dealing with the cease-fire effort in the Middle East,” Biden said.
Deal Has ‘Uncomfortable’ Elements: Biden Admin Official
The U.S.–Egyptian–Qatari joint statement offered few hints at the existing gaps in the peace framework and how the latest bridging proposal would cover these gaps.A senior Biden administration official told reporters in a background call that the parties need to finalize the list of captives to be exchanged and the sequence in which each captive would be released.
The senior administration official said cease-fire discussions in Doha had also focused on the humanitarian surge and the initial efforts to reconstruct Gaza after months of urban fighting and Israeli bombardment.
“There are elements of the deal that are uncomfortable, just like any deal like this,” the senior administration official said.
Still, the official said this latest bridging proposal aligns with the peace framework Biden laid out in May, and which the U.N. Security Council has affirmed.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby recently rebuked Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government political coalition—for disparaging the negotiations.
“Some critics, like Mr. Smotrich, for example, have claimed that the hostage deal is a surrender to Hamas or that hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners,” Kirby told reporters in an Aug. 9 response. “Mr. Smotrich essentially suggests that the war ought to go on indefinitely, without pause, and with the lives of the hostages of no real concern at all. His arguments are dead wrong.”
Kirby insisted that while Smotrich opposes the peace plan, Netanyahu remains committed to the framework.
“Going to new negotiations allows the occupation to impose new conditions and employ the maze of negotiation to conduct more massacres,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters last week.
Control of a strip of territory running through the entire length of the Gaza Strip, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, could prove another sticking point in the negotiations. The Israeli government has indicated it could retain control of the corridor even after the war, but Hamas negotiators have insisted a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip entails giving up the corridor, too.
The senior Biden administration official didn’t directly answer a reporter’s question about who would control the corridor after the cease-fire, but said, “I think that issue is moving the right way.”
