US envoys arrive at truce talks as Egypt, Hamas voice ‘optimism’

AFP | Cairo

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Top US negotiators joined discussions yesterday aimed at bringing the Gaza war to an end, with the negotiations’ Egyptian host saying he had received “encouraging” signs so far.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hailed the support of US President Donald Trump, whose 20-point peace proposal forms the basis of the talks, while Hamas, too, expressed “optimism” over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel.

Both warring sides have responded positively to Trump’s plan, which calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.

Egyptian state-linked media aired footage of Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and sonin-law Jared Kushner pulling up to the talks in Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday.

Sisi said the word he had received since their arrival in the city the night before was “very encouraging”, adding the US envoys came “with a strong will, a strong message, and a strong mandate from President Trump to end the war in this round of negotiations”.

Sisi also invited Trump himself to travel to Egypt for a signing ceremony if a deal were reached.

At the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump told reporters “there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East” if Hamas and Israel did agree on a ceasefire.

‘Optimism prevails’

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP from Sharm El-Sheikh that “mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails”.

The militant group submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released from Israeli jails in the first phase of the truce “in accordance with the agreed-upon criteria and numbers”, Nunu added.

In exchange, Hamas is set to free 47 hostages, both alive and dead, who were seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin are also expected at the talks on Wednesday, while Hamas said it would be joined by delegations from Islamic Jihad -- which has also held some of the hostages in Gaza -- as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The negotiations were taking place under the shadow of the second anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Prisoners

Key to the negotiations will be the names of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas will push for.

According to Egyptian statelinked media, high-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti -- from Hamas’s rival, the Fatah movement -- is among those the group wants to see released.

He has been imprisoned since 2002, and was sentenced to life behind bars in 2004 on murder charges.

More broadly, Hamas’s top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said the Islamist group wants “guarantees from President Trump and the sponsor countries that the war will end once and for all”.

A Palestinian source close to the Hamas negotiating team said Tuesday’s session included Hamas discussing “the initial maps presented by the Israeli side regarding the withdrawal of troops as well as the mechanism and timetable for the hostage-prisoner exchange”.