People in a position to know are cautiously optimistic that the first step of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas could be reached this week.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza could be reached soon, a senior U.S. official told Sky News Arabia on Wednesday.
The officials said that the American mediators were “optimistic about that possibility.” A White House official added that the negotiations are at “a critical stage.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli official familiar with the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh told Ynet that the sides are “moving closer to agreement on the first phase of Trump’s Gaza plan.” While disagreements remain, the official described the mood as “cautiously optimistic” and said “the direction is positive.”
CNN is hearing the same thing.
Two Israeli sources said a deal was “very close,” with one saying an announcement could come within the next 24 hours. A third source said a deal could be reached in the next 48 hours, with the release of hostages likely beginning early next week.
A US official confirmed progress had been made, saying that a deal could come within “days.”
There are other signs that a deal may be close. Envoys from Washington have just arrived in Egypt suggesting we’re now reaching the crunch time for these negotiations. The US is going all in to make this happen.
President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday morning to join the negotiations over the deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and end the war in Gaza that has now crossed the two-year mark…
The indirect talks between Israeli and Hamas negotiators started on Monday and have made some progress, but U.S. and Israeli officials have said the negotiations will reach crunch time only when Witkoff and Kushner arrive…
Senior U.S. officials expressed cautious optimism about the chances of reaching a deal this week and emphasized that Kushner and Witkoff won’t leave Egypt without an agreement to release the hostages and end the war.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is feeling optimistic enough that he is inviting President Trump to Egypt in the event that a deal is going to be signed.
I am inviting President Trump in the case, God willing, if an agreement is reached, that he attends the signing in Egypt,” al-Sisi said at a graduating ceremony for police students in Cairo.
So what are the sticking points? The first part of this deal is mostly about releasing the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But there are problems on both ends of this. First off, Israel doesn’t believe Hamas can actually release all the hostages.
Israel assesses that Hamas may not be able to find and return all the remaining dead hostages in Gaza, according to three Israeli sources, a fact that may complicate efforts to reach a deal to end the war.
Sources say the Israeli government is aware that Hamas may not know the location of, or is unable to retrieve, the remains of some of the 28 remaining deceased hostages. According to one source, the number is between seven and nine, another source put it between 10 and 15.
This is a problem because, as President Trump has said several times, the families of the deceases want the bodies of their loved ones back just as much as the families of the 20 living hostages. Those families are not going to be happy with a deal if their loved ones are not returned.
On the other end of the deal, Hamas has apparently requested the release of Marwan Barghouti who is serving five life sentences in Israel.
The former West Bank leader of the Fatah party is by far the most popular political figure in the occupied Palestinian territories, even though an entire generation of Palestinians was born after he was incarcerated more than two decades ago.
Some have described him as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela, a long-time jailed leader they believe can lead them to freedom.
To Israel, he is one of the most high-profile terrorists. The 66-year-old was jailed in 2002 for planning attacks that killed five civilians during the Second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising. He denied the charges at the time and rejected the jurisdiction and legitimacy of the court that sentenced him.
So that’s where we are right now. It’s crunch time and if all goes well we could actually see the end of this conflict by the end of the week. But there are still poison pill demands Hamas could make which could scuttle everything. But at this point, the international pressure led by the Trump administration is so strong that it would be an uphill climb to back out now. Hopefully we get more good news tomorrow.
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