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The delegations from Israel and Hamas began an indirect circle of negotiations to end the fire in Qatar, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Washington to meet Donald Trump.
Netanyahu said he believes his meeting with the US President on Monday should help with efforts to progress a deal to release more hostages and end fire in Gaza.
He said he had given his negotiating clear instructions to reach an agreement to terminate the fire under the conditions that Israel had accepted.
Hamas said he had responded to the last proposal to end the fire in a positive spirit, but it seems clear that there were still gaps between the two parties that need to be overcome if a transaction was to be negotiated.
So far, Hamas still seems to be in substance about the same conditions for which she has previously insisted – including a guarantee of ending all hostilities at the end of every truce and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The Netanyahu government has rejected this before.
The Israeli position may also not move largely. While leaving Israel to the United States, Netanyahu said he was still committed to what he described as three missions: “The release and return of all the hostages, the living and the fallen; the destruction of Hamas’s capabilities – to expel him and to ensure that Gaza would no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
The Qataric and Egyptian mediators will reduce their work during the indirect conversations between Israel and Hamas, trying to overcome those adhesive points that have derailed other initiatives, as the previous termination of fire ended in March.
Since then, Israel has resumed its offensive against Hamas of great intensity, and imposes eleven weekly blockade of aid entering Gaza, which was partially canceled a few weeks ago.
The Israeli government says these measures have been aimed at a further weakening of Hamas and forcing it to negotiate and release the hostages.
It is in the last 24 hours that the Israeli military said they have hit 130 Hamas goals and have killed a number of fighters.
But the price in civil life in Gaza is also still growing. Gaza hospital officials said more than 30 people had been killed on Sunday.
The question now is not only whether the conversations in Qatar can compromise, acceptable to both sides – but also whether Trump can convince Netanyahu that the war should end at their meeting on Monday.
Many in Israel already believe that this is a price worth paying to save other hostages.
Once again, they took to the street on Saturday night, calling for Netanyahu to reach a deal so that the hostages are finally released.
But there are hard votes in Netanyahu’s office, including the Minister of National Security Itar Ben Guir and Finance Minister, but the Minister of Finance, who again expressed their fierce opposition to the termination of the Gaza war before Hamas was completely eliminated.
Once again, there is a real momentum to the fire termination transaction, but the uncertainty whether either the Israeli government or Hamas is ready to reach an agreement that may not reach the key conditions they have set so far.
And once again the Palestinians in Gaza and the families of the Israeli hostage still have to tell that it hopes that this will not be another fake dawn.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were hostage.
Since then, at least 57 338 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory.