Negotiations resume in Qatar as the Israeli leader is set to hold talks with the US president, who has said a deal could be reached this week.
Israel and Hamas are holding indirect talks in Qatar for a second day, aimed at securing a ceasefire and a captive deal in Gaza, ahead of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.
The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, aiming to broker a deal on a truce and the release of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The US president has said a deal could be reached this week.
But even as the talks continue, Israel has not stopped its attacks in Gaza. On Monday, Israeli forces killed at least 61 Palestinians in airstrikes and shelling, hospital sources told media.
That includes at least three Palestinians killed near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution centre north of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Before departing for the US on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israeli negotiators were given clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire under conditions that Israel has accepted.
“We’ve gotten a lot of the hostages out, but pertaining to the remaining hostages, quite a few of them will be coming out,” he told journalists, adding that his meeting with Trump could “definitely help advance this” deal.
Of the 251 captives taken by Palestinian fighters during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 people the Israeli military says are dead.
Netanyahu had previously said Hamas’s response to a draft US-backed ceasefire proposal, conveyed through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, contained “unacceptable” demands.
media’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan because Israel has banned the network from reporting in Israel and the occupied West Bank, said Netanyahu “cannot seem to be going against Trump’s wishes”, adding that the Trump-Netanyahu meeting is being set up as a “very important meeting” for Israel’s regional agenda, not just on Gaza.
“There are disagreements within the Israeli cabinet that it will find difficult to adopt, especially on the issues of redeployment and food aid distribution,” she said, stressing that Netanyahu is under pressure both from Trump and his coalition back home.
Trump is expected to meet the Israeli leader around 6:30pm local time (22:30 GMT) on Monday, the White House said, without the usual presence of journalists.
The truce talks have been revived following last month’s 12-day Israeli and US air strikes on Iran.
Ending war the sticking point
The US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire envisages a phased release of captives, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Concluding the war has been the main sticking point in past rounds of talks, with Hamas demanding a full end to the conflict in return for releasing all captives, and Israel insisting it would fight on until Hamas is dismantled.
Some of Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners oppose ending the fighting. But, with Israelis having become increasingly weary of the 21-month-old war, his government is expected to back a ceasefire.
Since Hamas’s October 2023 attack and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, mediators have brokered two temporary halts in the fighting. They have seen captives freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
Recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire.
Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities, led to a hunger crisis, displaced nearly all the population, and left most of the besieged territory in ruins.
