Israel and Hamas began indirect peace talks Monday, with hopes it could represent the best chance yet to end the two-year war and free the remaining hostages from Gaza.
Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News television station reported that the talks began with a meeting between Arab mediators and the Hamas delegation. Mediators will then meet with the Israeli delegation, the station said.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators will discuss the outcome of their meetings with both parties, before U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff joins the talks, it said.
"I really think we’re going to have a deal. We have a really good chance of making a deal, and it will be a lasting deal," President Donald Trump told reporters at a media gathering Monday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Monday that Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were holding talks with "their respective parties from all sides."
"The president wants to see a ceasefire. He wants to see the hostages released, and the technical teams are discussing that as we speak to ensure that the environment is perfect to release those hostages," Leavitt said. "They’re going over the lists of both the Israeli hostages and also the political prisoners who will be released. And those talks are underway, and the president is very much on the ball and is being apprised of this situation."
On the anniversary eve of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, and subsequent military operation by Israel, representatives from all sides arrived in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss a 20-point peace plan tabled by Trump to halt the conflict.
Hamas' delegation is being led by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya, whom Israel tried to assassinate with a strike on Qatar last month.
Al-Hayya, whom Israeli President Isaac Herzog described as a "murderous terrorist" in the wake of the Qatar strike, arrived in Egypt early Monday, Hamas said in a statement.
Israel’s delegation will be led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office Sunday.
The two sides have agreed on parts of Trump’s proposal.
Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Egypt to help hammer out the deal’s remaining sticking points, a senior White House official told NBC News on Saturday.
Trump called the talks "very successful, and proceeding rapidly," and said Monday’s meetings was just a case of technical teams clarifying "final details." He wrote in a social media post that "the first phase should be completed this week."
Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American mediator, said in an interview that Hamas leaders were optimistic about the prospects of arriving at an agreement and feel specifically reassured by Trump's recent comments. They believe Trump is the only person who can pressure Netanyahu into a deal, Bahbah added.
Bahbah said he believes Hamas is unlikely to walk away from the talks without a deal, though "Hamas wants assurances that the war has truly ended and there will be no going back to the war and no Israeli violations" of the agreement, he said.
On Monday, the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, a group that coordinates efforts for those still held in Gaza, sent an "urgent letter" to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, "strongly urging" the body to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the American president this week "for his unprecedented contributions to global peace."
A senior Arab negotiator directly involved in the talks told NBC News on Monday, "A deal will happen if President Trump keeps pushing."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was cooler, telling NBC News’ "Meet the Press" on Sunday that finding a resolution would take "some time" and that "there’s some work that remains to be done."
It came as Israel said it deported 171 activists, including the campaigner Greta Thunberg, who sailed toward Gaza on an aid flotilla. The detainees, whose vessels were boarded by Israeli military personnel, were deported to Greece and Slovakia, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The first phase of the talks will deal with the release of the remaining 48 hostages, some 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The plan also calls for the end of fighting and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Hamas agreed to some of this proposal Friday, while sidestepping Trump’s call for it to disband and disarm.
On Sunday, Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi denied as baseless reports in Arab media that the group had agreed to lay down its weapons.
Israel says it agrees with the plan, buoying the yearslong, impassioned domestic campaign by families and supporters of the hostages to cease fighting so they can be brought home.
Ohad Ben Ami, 56, was released in February, having been kidnapped from kibbutz Be’eri, in southern Israel, and held captive for 491 days. On Sunday, he showed NBC News the place where he was taken on Oct. 7.
"When we were down there" in the deep Gaza tunnel where he was held, he said he was told "many times there was a deal in the air," he said. "We were very happy and on a high, then they say, 'no it’s collapsed' and we were very depressed."
Still, Netanyahu faces pressure from his own government over negotiations. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that stopping attacks on Gaza would be a “grave mistake."
In Gaza, many Palestinians are desperate for an end to the bombardment that has killed more than 67,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Some 78% of buildings have either been damaged or destroyed.
The prospect of an agreement has not stopped the Israeli attacks. Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office said Sunday that Israel had carried out 131 airstrikes on Gaza over the past 48 hours, killing 94 Palestinians.
Israel launched the offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, in which some 1,200 were killed and another 250 kidnapped.
Though freeing the hostages would be a “significant achievement and a fulfillment of a principal war objective,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned his troops to be ready.
“The operation is not over; we must remain alert and ready for combat at all times,” he said in a statement Sunday. “If the political effort does not succeed, we will return to fight.”
