U.S. President Envoys Head to Egypt for Gaza Ceasefire Talks

EPA

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike near Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and senior envoy Steve Witkoff are travelling to Egypt to begin negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire, the White House announced on Saturday. The move comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed hope of securing the release of all remaining hostages “in the coming days”.

A White House official said President Trump was dispatching his envoys to Cairo to finalise technical details of a hostage release and to advance discussions on a lasting ceasefire. The announcement followed Hamas’s declaration on Friday that it was prepared to free hostages under President Trump’s peace plan, aimed at ending the two-year-old war.

President Trump told Axios in an interview: “We are very close to reaching an agreement.” 

Egypt’s foreign ministry confirmed it would host delegations from Israel and Hamas on Monday to discuss a proposed exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The renewed diplomacy comes a month after Israel derailed earlier ceasefire efforts by launching an airstrike in Qatar on Hamas negotiators, killing six people, though not its intended targets.

In a televised statement, Israeli PM Netanyahu said: “I hope that in the coming days we will be able to bring back all our hostages … during the Sukkot holidays.” He also reiterated Israel’s demand that Hamas be disarmed, “either diplomatically via Trump’s plan or militarily by us”.

On Truth Social, President Trump wrote that Israel had agreed to an initial withdrawal line, which had been shown to Hamas. He said that once Hamas accepted it, a ceasefire would take effect, followed by a hostage-prisoner exchange and “the conditions for the next phase of withdrawal”.

President Trump has also said he intends to restore Israel’s standing in the world after criticism of its conduct in Gaza. According to the territory’s health authorities, at least 67,074 Palestinians have been killed and about 170,000 wounded since the war began, mostly civilians. Thousands more are believed to be buried beneath rubble.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters and AFP



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