Israel and Hamas start indirect talks in Egypt on the Trump Gaza Peace Plan

Indirect talks aimed at reaching a final agreement on an American peace plan to end the war in Gaza began in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Palestinian and Egyptian officials told the BBC that the sessions focused on “the creation of land conditions” for a possible exchange which would see the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for a certain number of Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas said it accepted the proposals of the peace plan in part, but has not responded to several key requests – including its disarmament and future role in Gaza.

The Israeli Prime Minister said on Saturday that he hoped to announce the release of the hostages “in the coming days”.

The talks, who will see Egyptian officials and Qataris held separately from shuttle meetings with delegations of Israel and Hamas, come on the eve of the second anniversary of the attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 other people were taken with accommodation.

The Israeli army has launched a campaign in Gaza in response. Since then, 67,160 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza, according to the Hamas Ministry of Hamas in the territory.

These discussions should be among the most consecutive since the start of the war and could determine whether a way towards the end of the conflict is finally at hand.

The American special envoy Steve Witkoff, the son -in -law of Trump Jared Kushner and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Qataris Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani are among those present there.

Donald Trump, writing on social networks, urged all the people involved in efforts to end the Gaza War to “move quickly” and says that it was informed of the first phase of the peace plan – which includes the release of hostages – “should be completed this week”.

The 20 -point plan, agreed by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, offers an immediate end to the fighting and the release of 48 hostages, of which only 20 are considered alive, in exchange for hundreds of detained gas.

The plan stipulates that once the two parties accept the proposal “full aid will be immediately sent to the Gaza Strip”.

He also indicates that Hamas would have no role in the governance of Gaza and leaves the door open to a possible Palestinian state.

However, after the plan was announced publicly a week ago, Netanyahu restored its long -standing opposition to a Palestinian state, saying in a video press release: “It is not written in the agreement. We said that we are strongly opposed to a Palestinian state.”

Friday, Hamas responded to the proposal in a press release, in which the group Okay, “to release all Israeli prisoners, both alive and dead, according to the exchange formula contained in the proposal of President Trump” – if the conditions appropriate for exchanges are met.

He did not specifically mention or accepted the 20 -point plan of Trump, but said that he “renews his agreement to put the administration of the Gaza band to a Palestinian independent corpus (technocrats), based on the Palestinian national consensus and Arab and Islamic support.”

The declaration made no mention of one of the main requests of the plan – that Hamas accepts its disarmament and did not play any role in the governance of Gaza.

He added that the part of the proposals dealing with the future of Gaza and the rights of the Palestinian people was still under discussion “in a national framework”, which he said that Hamas would be part.

Many Palestinians have described Hamas’ response to the peace plan as unexpected, after days of indications that the group was preparing to reject or at least condition its acceptance of the proposal of the Trump peace plan.

Instead, Hamas has refrained from including its traditional “red lines” in the official declaration, a movement that many interpret as a sign of external pressure.

European leaders and the Middle East welcomed the proposal. The Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the West Bank occupied by Israeli, described the efforts of the American president “sincere and determined”.

Iran – which has been one of Hamas’ main sponsors for many years – has also reported its support for Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan.

The Israeli bombardment continued in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Monday before the talks.

Israel makes an offensive in the city, which she says aims to guarantee the release of the remaining hostages.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense of Gaza, told the BBC that “no aid truck had been authorized in Gaza City since the start of the offensive four weeks ago”.

“There are still bodies that we cannot recover areas under Israeli control,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of residents of the city of Gaza were forced to flee after the Israeli army ordered evacuations in a “humanitarian zone” designated in the South, but hundreds of thousands of others have remained.

The Israeli Defense Minister warned that those who stay during the offensive would be “terrorists and supporters of terror”.

In the past 24 hours, 21 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 96 others injured, said the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas in its last update.

International journalists have been prohibited by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, which makes the assertions on both sides difficult.