Talks in Doha, release of hostages… What we know about the new round of negotiations for a truce in Gaza

The negotiators back around the table. While the war has continued for almost 15 months in Gaza and hopes of a truce between Israel and Hamas have been regularly dashed, a new cycle of discussions has opened in recent days. The Hebrew state highlights the objective of freeing Israeli hostages still held in the Palestinian enclave, while the Islamist movement aims to stop the fighting, at a time when dozens of Gazans have been killed in strikes Israelis in a few days, according to emergency services in the enclave.

Despite intense diplomatic efforts led under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, no truce has been concluded since that of a week at the end of November 2023, which allowed the release of hostages. After the failure of new negotiations in December in Doha, a new round of discussions finally opened at the start of the year, a race against time before Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20 , who issued an ultimatum: “hell awaits us” if the hostages are not released by then, he warned.

Hamas defends its “seriousness”, Israel announces “ongoing efforts”

Hamas announced on Friday that negotiations were resuming in Doha, specifying that they would focus in particular on a “complete cessation of hostilities” and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. A senior official, Basem Naim, assured that he wanted to reach an agreement as quickly as possible and assured that he was treating the subject “seriously”, cited by the American channel CNN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office announced on Thursday evening the sending of a “professional delegation from the Mossad, the Shin Bet and the Israeli army” to Doha according to the Israeli media, assured that “the efforts were continuing, including at the moment” for the return of the hostages, according to his services.

The Israeli initiative is “a good step”, welcomed the White House spokesperson for national security, John Kirby, promising that Washington would do “everything possible” to reach a new agreement , according to the Jerusalem Post.

The question of the release of hostages at the heart of tensions

Stakeholders have not released the content of the negotiations, but according to the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat, the mediators have “intensified their efforts to fill the gaps in a possible agreement”, with six-hour discussions on Friday with the parties stakeholders, which continued on Saturday.

But for now, points of friction remain. Senior Israeli officials reported slow progress, according to the Israeli site Ynet News, while an Israeli official and an Egyptian official also noted little progress in the exchanges with the American channel CNN.

One of the issues centers on the list of hostages that would be released and the number of Palestinian prisoners that Hamas will demand in exchange. A diplomatic source close to the matter told CNN that the envisaged agreement would be based on a proposal formulated by Joe Biden in the spring of 2024, namely a first phase of six weeks for the release of the most vulnerable hostages.

However, “it is the question of the list of prisoners which has already derailed” the negotiations of recent weeks, recalled a source to the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. According to her, Hamas would have agreed this time to release more hostages, “including reservists”, but in return it wants “important” detainees to be released, “and there is still a gap”.

Citing the American site Axios, the Israeli media The Times of Israel mentions a project for the possible release of 34 hostages, some alive and others dead: women, elderly men as well as others under the age of 50 suffering from problems serious health problems. But Hamas reportedly claimed that this list would include a third of men under 50, whom they consider to be soldiers, and demanded in exchange to release more Palestinian prisoners.

France has expressed its “slim hopes that an agreement can be found” to deliver the hostages, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot declared on Sunday on RTL, Le Figaro, Public Senate and M6. “We continue to exert the necessary pressure so that this can happen, unfortunately it does not depend only on us,” he regretted, recalling that two French people were among the hostages still being held.

The withdrawal of Israeli troops and the end of the fighting, the other issue

The terrorist movement also wants to ensure that this first phase will lead to a cessation of fighting, with the end of the war in its sights, according to several media. According to Ynet News, Hamas is immediately demanding a significant withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, while the Jewish state only wants to consider these issues during future stages of negotiations.

Furthermore, while in the spring of 2024 Joe Biden initially proposed the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all “populated areas of Gaza”, “what has changed is that Israeli forces will probably remain temporarily” in the enclave, a diplomatic source told CNN, referring in particular to the corridors of Philadelphia, along the border between Gaza and Egypt, and Netzarim, which crosses the width of the Palestinian enclave.

In parallel with these negotiations, on the ground, the conflict has increased in intensity in recent days. The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it had struck more than a hundred “terrorist targets” in the Gaza Strip over the past 48 hours.

According to data from the Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza, 88 Palestinians were killed in 24 hours. Gazan civil defense has reported around ten to around twenty deaths every day since the New Year, more than 30 people killed on Saturday and at least 23 this Sunday.