Negotiations in Cairo to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage deal are still pressing ahead, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said, adding that the discussions will continue at the “working-group level” for the next few days to iron out specific issues.
Speaking to reporters in a virtual briefing, Kirby pushed back on suggestions that the mediated talks between Israel and Hamas have broken down, and said, on the contrary, that they were “constructive.”
“The talks actually progressed to a point where they felt like the next logical step was to have working groups at lower levels to sit down to hammer out these finer details,” Kirby said. “We expect that these working group discussions will at least take place over the next few days, but whether it goes longer, or could end sooner, I think really is going to be up to those in the room.”
Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden’s top Middle East aide at the White House who has been participating in the talks, will soon leave Cairo after staying an extra day to start the working-group talks, Kirby said.
One of the issues to be tackled by the working groups will be the exchange of hostages Hamas is holding and Palestinian prisoners incarcerated by Israel, Kirby said.
He said the details to be “fleshed out” included how many hostages may be exchanged, their identities, and the pace of their potential release.
Months of on-off talks have failed to produce an agreement to end the fighting in Gaza and free the remaining hostages seized during the Hamas-led October 7 terror onslaught that triggered the war.
The latest round of negotiations came under the threat of a regional escalation. Over the weekend, Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel as Israel’s military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a larger attack.
But Kirby said the cross-border warfare over the weekend has not had an impact on the talks.
Key sticking points in ongoing talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include an Israeli presence in the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5-kilometer-long (9-mile-long) stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
“There continues to be progress and our team on the ground continues to describe the talks as constructive,” Kirby said.
Unnamed senior officials told Channel 12 news that mediators in ceasefire-hostage deal talks decided to set aside the thorny issue of Israel’s presence along the Philadelphi route and Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza under a potential agreement, and are focusing on other matters.
The network said American mediators hope to reach agreements on other matters first, such as Israel’s ability to veto the release of some Palestinian prisoners and how many living hostages Israel will get back during the proposed deal’s six-week first phase, adding some progress has indeed been made on these issues.
The issue of Israeli forces’ presence on the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors will be left to the very end of talks, according to the report, which quoted officials saying they don’t believe Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar will budge on the Gaza-Egypt border unless he feels the IDF is closing in on him.
Noting the continued disagreements, a source familiar with the talks told the Kan public broadcaster that the chances for a deal were not high, but security chiefs told political leaders that Israel should exhaust the efforts to reach an agreement in any case.
Hamas official Taher Al-Nono meanwhile reiterated to Qatar’s flagship Al Jazeera Mubasher on Monday that remarks made by the US regarding the status of the ceasefire talks are “inconsistent with the truth and their objective is to support the positions of the occupation.”
In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian terror group said that talk of an imminent deal is false.
Two Egyptian sources on Sunday said Israel expressed reservations about several of the Palestinian detainees Hamas is demanding be released, and Israel demanded their exit of Gaza if they are released.
It is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.