Hamas and Egypt expressed new optimism Wednesday as President Donald Trump’s envoy and key mediators joined talks to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
“A spirit of optimism prevails among all,” the activist group said after submitting a list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released in exchange for Israeli hostages under the US plan.
The release of those still detained in Gaza and 1,950 Palestinian prisoners are crucial elements of Trump’s 20-point proposal.
Israel has not yet commented on Hamas’ statement.
Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sissi, who is hosting the talks at the CHARM EL-SHEIKH Resort, said the messages he had received were also “very encouraging.”
The arrival of Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner on the third day of talks – with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani – comes after Israel and the Palestinians marked the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks and the devastating conflict that followed.
A senior member of Hamas’s political wing told NBC News that Wednesday’s negotiations had begun.
A meeting on the future of Gaza would be held in Paris on Thursday, a French diplomatic source briefed on the matter told NBC News.
Representatives were invited from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Indonesia, Canada, Turkey and the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, the source said.
The source was not aware of any U.S. representatives attending.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not comment on the status of the talks in Egypt, but told Israelis on Tuesday that they were in “fateful days of decision.”
Trump expressed optimism about the talks, telling reporters in Washington that there was “a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East.”
Qatar wants international guarantees, led by the United States, that what is being negotiated in Egypt will lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, the entry of more aid, and a permanent end to the war, Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told Al-Hadath, Saudi Arabia’s news channel, on Tuesday.
Wednesday “will undoubtedly be a pivotal day in determining those details,” he said.
But Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged Netanyahu to pursue “complete victory” over Hamas in Gaza, in a video posted on X filmed by the mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Another video showed him praying at the compound, his latest challenge to a decades-old understanding of only Muslim worship at the site.
Israel continued its assault on Gaza while the talks took place. Its military campaign has killed more than 67,000 people, reducing much of the enclave to rubble after the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 in Gaza held hostage.
There were somber rallies across Israel on Tuesday to mark the attacks, including in the south of the country where families and friends paid tribute to the more than 370 victims killed at the NOVA Music Festival.
Palestinians, meanwhile, reflected on two years of brutal conflict and their hopes for an end to the devastation.
Alaa Abu Daraz and her children left their home in eastern Gaza on October 7, and two years later they have yet to return, living on the streets as they seek safety.
“Our children are left on the streets, without tents, without shelter, not even a blanket,” she told NBC News this week. “We made it through the summer and survived the heat, but the winter is unbearable; we cannot live or do anything in these conditions.”
Israel has faced a global mounting of isolation over its assault.
A new aid flotilla bound for Gaza that included a number of Americans was intercepted by the Israeli military on Wednesday, days after the detention of activists aboard a high-profile flotilla fueled international outrage.
Eight American citizens were “likely kidnapped” by Israeli forces in their international waters, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced Wednesday.
