Israel and Hamas are both open to a hostage deal, although disagreements remain on how to implement it, two Egyptian sources told Reuters as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was slated to arrive in Israel on Monday.
Austin, who was in Kuwait and Bahrain, is also expected to visit Qatar, which along with Egypt is attempting to mediate a deal for the return of the more than 120 hostages remaining in Gaza.
Mossad Director David Barnea met Friday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe, and according to some media reports, he is expected to hold a second meeting with him this week.
The deal is expected to be more complex than the one in November for mostly women, children, and foreigners. It might include an Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners responsible for killing Israelis in past terrorist attacks, KAN News reported.
Hamas is insisting on setting the list of hostages to be released unilaterally and demanding that Israeli forces withdraw behind predetermined lines, the sources told Reuters.
PM Netanyahu under pressure for another hostage deal
While Israel has agreed on Hamas setting the list, the sources said it demanded a timeline and to see the list before setting the time and duration of the ceasefire.
Israel refuses to withdraw, the sources added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have been under pressure to conclude a deal to free all the hostages. Hamas has publicly said it would only consider a deal that includes an agreement to end the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza.
Israel has insisted that it plans to proceed with its military campaign to destroy Hamas, irrespective of any hostage deal. The past deal included an agreement to temporarily have a pause in fighting, and a new agreement is expected to do so as well.
As part of its efforts to negotiate a deal, and in a nod to its understanding with the United States, Israel over the weekend agreed to open its main commercial crossing into Gaza at Kerem Shalom for humanitarian aid for the first time since the start of the war.
“Israel is committed to continue working with our partners to facilitate large amounts of aid to the people of Gaza,” said Col. Moshe Tetro, head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza.
The opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing would allow Israel to “abide by the terms of our agreement with the United States,” he said.
It will also “increase the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip, where it will continue to be met by international aid organizations that will deliver it to the people of Gaza,” he added.
“Our war is not with the people of Gaza,” Tetro said. “Our war is with Hamas.”
Israel had only allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah crossing, a move that has been fraught with difficulty given that the passageway is not designed for the high-level flow of goods.
The US had promised to renovate the Rafah crossing, and Kerem Shalom would be used only as an interim crossing, Netanyahu said Saturday.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday is set to debate a resolution calling for the opening of all land, air, and sea routes into Gaza, although at present, there are only land crossings. Israel has long had a military blockage against air and sea routes into Gaza for security purposes.
The resolution also calls on the UN to establish a monitoring mechanism for the goods that enter Gaza. It also calls for the release of the hostages and a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who visited Israel on Sunday, called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, which she hoped would lead to a permanent ceasefire.
According to Hamas, 19,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza war-related violence with Israel, and about 7,000 of the fatalities were combatants. Hamas killed 1,200 people and seized about 250 captives when it attacked Israel on October 7, sparking the war.
Pope Francis on Sunday again suggested Israel was using “terrorism” tactics in Gaza, deploring the reported killing by the IDF of two Christian women who had taken refuge in a church complex.
At his weekly blessing, he referred to a statement about an incident on Saturday by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land.
An IDF “sniper” had killed the two women, Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, as they walked to a convent of nuns in the compound of the Holy Family Parish, he said.
The Patriarchate statement said seven other people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others.
“I continue to receive very grave and painful news from Gaza,” Francis said. “Unarmed civilians are the objects of bombings and shootings. And this happened even inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick or disabled, nuns.”
Francis said they were killed by “snipers” and also referred to the Patriarchate’s statement that a convent of nuns of the order founded by Mother Teresa was damaged by Israeli tank fire.
“Some would say, ‘It is war. It is terrorism.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism,” he said.
The Foreign Ministry said the incident was still under review, and it had no immediate comment on the pope’s words.It was the second time in less than a month that the pope used the word “terrorism” while speaking about events in Gaza.
On November 22, after meeting separately with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza, he said: “This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.”
Later that day, a messy dispute broke out about whether he used the word “genocide” to describe events in Gaza, with Palestinians who met him insisting that he did and the Vatican saying he did not.
Jewish groups criticized the pope for last month’s “terrorism” comments.