Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is playing a central role in the negotiations between Hamas and Israel, will embark on Tuesday and Wednesday on his first state visit to France since his accession to the throne in 2013. The small Gulf country, which hosted Hamas leaders since 2012 with Washington's consent, played a key role in the first ceasefire in November 2023. It helped broker a seven-day truce that saw the exchange of 80 Israeli hostages held by Hamas for 240 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children.
On Sunday, February 25, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to US President Joe Biden, announced that the "basic countours" of an agreement had been found between representatives of Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar, during recent negotiations in Paris. At the same time, according to AlQahera News (a television station close to Egypt's intelligence services), representatives of Egypt, Qatar, the US, Israel and Hamas resumed talks on the same subject in Doha. These discussions "will be followed by meetings in Cairo," according to the same source.
The outlines of the agreement presented to Israel's war cabinet, the government body responsible for conducting the conflict, were revealed by the Israeli media. Forty hostages are to be released from Gaza. In exchange, Israel is to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The agreement would provide for a six-week ceasefire, without any release of Israeli hostages in the first week. Some would then be released at the rate of one a day. The truce could begin within two weeks, the US administration hopes, and would therefore cover the whole of Ramadan, a period of political mobilization of the Palestinian and Muslim population, dreaded by the Israeli authorities. The agreement would also establish the return of part of Gaza's population to the north of the enclave, under terms yet to be specified.
On Sunday, while confirming on CBS that an agreement was being negotiated without giving further details, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the Israeli military offensive on Rafah, the crossing point between Gaza and Egypt where over a million displaced Palestinians are massed, would only "delayed somewhat." The army "presented to the war cabinet a plan for the evacuation of the population from the combat zones in the Gaza Strip, as well as a plan for future operations," said Netanyahu's office in a statement.
During the emir of Qatar's visit to Paris, the two-state solution, "the only viable solution for ending the crisis as we have known it since October 7," will also be discussed, according to the French presidency. Qatar is a member of the group launched at the beginning of February to initiate, following the summit held in Saudi Arabia between the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
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