Momentum builds for Gaza truce; Israel team to land in Qatar Sunday

Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.

Israel was considering its response Saturday after Palestinian resistance group Hamas said it was ready to start talks "immediately" on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.

The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official told Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday.

Trump is expected to press the Israeli prime minister to end the war with Hamas in Gaza.

Trump has vowed to be tough on Netanyahu as he hopes to use the momentum from the truce between Iran and Israel to secure a ceasefire in the devastated Palestinian territory, too.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the group has so far refused to discuss.

Trump has been making a renewed push to end the war in Gaza, where the civil defence agency said 35 people were killed in Israeli military operations Saturday.

"The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place" the US-backed truce proposal," Hamas said in a statement.

Two Palestinian sources said that the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.

However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel's withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.

Trump, when asked about Hamas's response aboard Air Force One, said: "That's good. They haven't briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza."

Trump, determined to win the Nobel peace prize and riding a wave of recent foreign and domestic policy victories, is making a renewed push for a result.

"There could be a Gaza deal next week," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday. He said he was "very optimistic" about a deal but added that "it changes from day to day. It's been changing for years."

Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US secured temporary halts in fighting and the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said Saturday that top diplomat Badr Abdelatty held a phone call with Washington's main representative in the truce talks, Steve Witkoff, to discuss recent developments "and preparations for holding indirect meetings between the two parties concerned to reach an agreement".

But recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel's rejection of Hamas's demand for a lasting ceasefire.

Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two mn people in the Gaza Strip.

A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Its operations have been marred by near-daily reports of Israeli fire on people waiting to collect rations.

Israel's campaign has killed at least 57,338 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

"I think we're going to see a strategic meeting in the style of 'grand bargaining', as Trump likes them," Michael Horowitz, an independent geopolitical analyst, told AFP.

"Even Mr Netanyahu is aware that we are reaching the end of what can be done in Gaza, and that it is time to plan an exit. Netanyahu surely wants it to be gradual." Trump however will be pushing for something quicker and more comprehensive.