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Israeli safety and coverage chiefs arrived in Qatar on Sunday for high-level talks a couple of proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza that will see hostages launched within the last days of President Biden’s time period and earlier than Donald J. Trump takes workplace.
Biden administration officers have been urgent for a deal that will turn into a part of the departing president’s legacy, and Mr. Trump has warned that “all hell will get away within the Middle East” if Hamas doesn’t launch the hostages earlier than he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Lower-level negotiations have been underway in latest weeks after months of impasse.
While some progress has been made, disagreements stay on a number of key factors, together with the timing and extent of Israel’s redeployments and withdrawal from Gaza and its willingness to finally finish the conflict, in accordance with a number of officers and a Palestinian accustomed to the matter. They had been talking on the situation of anonymity as a result of the talks are being held in secrecy they usually weren’t approved to debate particulars publicly.
Representatives of the departing and incoming U.S. presidents have been cooperating on the problem, the Biden administration has mentioned, whereas Qatar and Egypt are mediating between Israel and Hamas.
Brett M. McGurk, Mr. Biden’s Middle East coordinator, was already in Doha, the Qatar capital, placing collectively the ultimate particulars of a textual content settlement to current to the 2 sides, Jake Sullivan, the president’s nationwide safety adviser, mentioned Sunday on “State of the Union” on CNN.
“We are very, very shut, and but being very shut nonetheless means we’re far as a result of till you really get throughout the end line we’re not there,” Mr. Sullivan mentioned.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken referred to months of efforts to achieve a deal, saying in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” that “we’re very near a cease-fire and hostage settlement.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Biden spoke by cellphone later Sunday. The two leaders mentioned the present negotiations in Doha for a cease-fire and hostage launch deal, in accordance with statements from the White House and Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace. Mr. Netanyahu “thanked President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump for cooperating on this sacred mission,” in accordance with the prime minister’s workplace.
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s meant Middle East envoy, met Mr. Netanyahu in Israel on Saturday. On Friday, Mr. Witkoff was in Doha and met the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, for talks that targeted on efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza, in accordance with Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.
Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace introduced late Saturday that he had mentioned the problem with Israel’s safety chiefs and with negotiators from each the departing and incoming American administrations. He additionally instructed Israel’s high negotiators — together with David Barnea, the top of the Mossad intelligence company — to depart for Qatar with the purpose of advancing a deal, Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned.
Disagreements between Israel and Hamas stay on the elemental situation of the permanency of a cease-fire, with Mr. Netanyahu nonetheless unwilling to declare an finish of the conflict as a part of a three-phase settlement that Mr. Biden laid out final May.
Israel is insisting on a vaguer formulation that leaves room for ambiguity, in accordance with the Palestinian accustomed to the matter and two Israeli officers. Another official accustomed to the matter mentioned the Americans had been supposed to offer mediators with a assure that the United States would work to deliver the conflict to an finish, although Israel has not agreed to any actual phrasing.
Hamas can also be demanding detailed maps from Israel exhibiting the place it is going to withdraw to, however Israel has not supplied them, in accordance with the officers and the Palestinian accustomed to the matter. They added that disagreements stay concerning the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land abutting Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Nearly 100 hostages who had been seized in the course of the Hamas-led assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, stay in Gaza, out of roughly 250 who had been taken. Israel believes not less than a 3rd of the remaining hostages are dead.
Israel and Hamas have each proven indicators of eager to resolve the excellent points, as stress mounts from the United States and the Israeli public. Last week Hamas representatives indicated that the group had authorised an Israeli record of 34 hostages to be launched within the first stage of an settlement.
But Israel mentioned final week that it had not obtained any data from Hamas concerning the standing of the hostages showing on the record, which incorporates these it considers essentially the most susceptible and pressing circumstances: ladies and kids, males over 50 and a number of other sick or injured hostages.
Israel has demanded a listing from Hamas of which hostages stay alive. Without that, Israeli officers say, there will be no settlement on what number of Palestinian prisoners Israel can be keen to launch in trade for them. As of Sunday morning, Israel had not obtained a listing of reside hostages, in accordance with one of many officers accustomed to the matter.
The physique of one of many hostages whose identify appeared on the record of 34 — Youssef Ziyadne, 53, an Arab citizen of Israel — was situated final week by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza together with the stays of his son, Hamza Ziyadne, who was additionally captured in the course of the 2023 assault.
The Israeli army introduced the stays of each males again to Israel for burial.
Mr. Sullivan, the U.S. nationwide safety adviser, mentioned that Mr. Biden would have a name quickly with Mr. Netanyahu however pressured that the principle impediment to a deal has been Hamas.
“We will not be by any stretch of the creativeness setting this apart,” Mr. Sullivan mentioned. “There is a chance this comes collectively. There’s additionally a chance, as has occurred so many occasions earlier than, that Hamas particularly stays intransigent.”
Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.
