US President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday, reportedly to discuss negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal.
The White House announced that the meeting will take place, and Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X that it will focus on the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages held in Gaza, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza, and discussions on ending the conflict.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a key mediator between the two sides, said on Sunday that he was “hopeful” about the negotiations underway in Qatar. The US president also expressed his optimism that a deal could be reached by the end of the week.
While US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators have been working to secure an agreement, Israel and Hamas are divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel. The attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 251 people were abducted as hostages to the Gaza Strip, where 49 remain, many believed dead, along with the remains of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
A previous two-month ceasefire that began in January saw dozens of hostages released in return for Israel releasing over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, as well as an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The ceasefire collapsed in March amid mutual accusations of violations, and Israel renewed its attacks in Gaza.
Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza after the war, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians.
Trump and Sheikh Mohammed are also expected to discuss efforts to resume talks between the US and Iran to reach a new nuclear agreement, Ravid said, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 454.