Cease-fire talks are underway to resolve two related conflicts in the Middle East that have killed tens of thousands of people and threaten to spiral into a wider regional war.
On Thursday, top U.S. officials held talks in Egypt and Israel in an attempt end the conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Envoys from Israel, Egypt, the United States and Qatar also met in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Oct. 28.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas in which about 1,200 people in Israel were killed and around 250 were taken hostage, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the local health ministries, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Here’s what to know about the key players, negotiations and major obstacles.
Israel-Hamas
Who are the players?
Qatar and Egypt mediate on behalf of Hamas, which does not directly participate in the talks. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, has been deeply engaged in the talks. Gen. Abbas Kamel, was Egypt’s top cease-fire negotiator, but he was removed recently from his post as intelligence chief, leaving his role in the talks unclear. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has also been involved in negotiations.
The chief of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence service, David Barnea, is one of his country’s primary negotiators, along with Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, the domestic security service, and Nitzan Alon, a top military general.
The C.I.A. director William J. Burns is playing a lead role for the U.S. in talks, along with the White House’s Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk.
What are they negotiating?
The central idea behind the cease-fire is that fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas would stop, the Israeli military would withdraw from the enclave, and Hamas would release the roughly 100 hostages remaining in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
In October, mediators floated a separate short-term proposal: A temporary truce and the release of a few Israeli hostages in exchange for some Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. That proposal included a humanitarian aid component to address severe shortages of food, medicine and critical supplies in Gaza. That could pave the way for a more comprehensive deal.
Multiple versions of the short-term proposal are still under discussion. One would release female hostages along with male captives over age 50 in return for a set number of Palestinian prisoners, according to a person briefed on the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In another version, Hamas would release four hostages over roughly 10 days, according to a second official briefed on the negotiations.