First steps in negotiations: Hamas hands over to Israel the list of prisoners to be exchanged
The release of prisoners and hostages would be one of the first stages of the Gaza peace agreement being discussed in Egypt.
BarcelonaHamas has handed Israel a list of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners who could be released under a peace agreement. The release of the hostages will be one of the first steps in fulfilling the agreement, should it ultimately be approved. Hamas official Taher al-Nounou expressed optimism regarding the outcome.the negotiations taking place in Egypt on Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war.
Hamas indicated in a statement that its delegation is showing "the positivity and responsibility necessary to achieve the necessary progress and complete the agreement." The mediators – Egyptian and Qatari – "are making great efforts to eliminate any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, giving priority to a spirit of optimism among all," the statement said.
Among the Palestinian prisoners set to be released are figures such as Marwan Barghouti, a symbol of the struggle against Israel. Barghouti was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for five murders, attempted murder, and belonging to a terrorist organization. But in the West Bank, he is considered a consensus figure for his commitment to the Palestinian struggle.
The proposal discussed in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheikh provides that this initial phase will address details regarding the ceasefire and the release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The general feeling is one of optimism. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi maintained this morning that he has received "very encouraging" messages from the mediators regarding the negotiations. Donald Trump himself expressed similar sentiment on Tuesday, coinciding with the second anniversary of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. But despite the confidence in reaching an agreement, a timetable for the first phase of the plan—which would include the exchange of prisoners and hostages—has not yet been set, and the troop-to-troop presence continues. On Tuesday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum insisted that an agreement would only be reached if the fighting ended definitively and Israel left the Palestinian territory.
In addition to the Hamas and Israeli delegations holding indirect talks through Egyptian and Qatari mediators, the talks also included US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and former Middle East advisor.
Trump asks Turkey for help.
On the second political line, there are many international actors trying to push the pact forward. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained this morning that he is holding talks with Hamas to convince the group to accept the plan on the table, as Trump himself requested. "During my visit to the United States and in our most recent phone call, we explained to Donald Trump how to achieve a pact in Palestine. And he specifically requested that we meet with Hamas and try to convince them," the Turkish leader said. However, Erdogan has also argued that in any post-war scenario, Gaza must remain part of a Palestinian state and must be governed by Palestinians.
But while some try to advance the pact, others are pushing to derail it. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the Temple Mount (known to Jews as the Temple Mount) on Wednesday morning and declared that Jews are "the owners of the Temple Mount," thus defying the so-called status quo religious law, which stipulates that only Muslims have the right to pray there.
Hamas has interpreted the action in the midst of negotiations as a provocation, and has accused the far-right minister of sending "an aggressive message that seeks to strengthen the temporal and spatial division and impose control over employment at the Al-Aqsa Mosque," which is a sacred space in Islam.