Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90
A picture of slain Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin hang on a building in Jerusalem, Dec. 3, 2024
(JNS) — Doha is no longer sitting on the sidelines of the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, after suspending its involvement on Nov. 9, citing a lack of “good faith” on the interested parties’ part.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has traveled to Qatar and Israel in a bid to restart ceasefire talks, with Trump seeking a deal before he is sworn in on Jan. 20, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a source briefed on the talks.
Witkoff met separately in late November with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as foreign minister, the source said.
The Qatar meeting took place on Nov. 22 and the Israel meeting the following day.
The source said of the Doha meeting that “both agreed a Gaza ceasefire is needed before Trump’s inauguration so that once the Trump administration takes office it can move on to other issues, like stabilizing Gaza and the region.”
An Israeli official told Reuters that Witkoff also met with the families of Israeli hostages. He “spoke with them about Team Trump’s efforts to try and broker the deal before inauguration,” the official said.
On Nov. 24, Sheikh Mohammed visited Vienna to meet with David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, who has been leading Israel’s negotiations with Qatar for the past 14 months.
A high-level Israeli delegation led by Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Ronen Bar is traveling to Cairo next week, according to Israeli and Arab reports.
Cairo also this week hosted separate negotiations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah Party aimed at signing a deal on joint management of Gaza after the war. The proposal, which Jerusalem opposes, would follow a truce with Israel, negotiators said on Tuesday.
Citing “informed sources,” the Qatar-owned London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al Jadeed claimed on Wednesday that Cairo had prepared a new draft proposal to serve as a basis for negotiations following “strong indications” by Hamas of willingness to sign a deal.
“There are plans for a subsequent round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to take place potentially in Doha soon, but no specific date has been set,” the Reuters source said.
On-and-off indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to renew last year’s hostage release agreement have dragged on for months, with the United States, Egypt, Qatar and others acting as intermediaries.
Qatar also reportedly agreed to kick out Hamas leaders it was harboring in the Arab Gulf state when it announced its departure from the talks.
Various countries — including Turkey, Iran and Russia — have welcomed Hamas members in recent weeks after the terror group’s leadership was asked to leave Qatar, Israel’s Kan News reported on Monday night.
The Reuters source noted that Hamas negotiators are expected to return to Doha, the Qatari capital, for further talks in the near future.
