Donald Trump says he may travel to the Middle East because a Gaza deal is ‘very close’

Donald Trump said he may travel to the Middle East as early as this weekend as negotiators get “very close” to finalizing his plan for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.

The US President said on Wednesday that there was a “good chance” that the agreement would be signed by the end of the week. “I might go there sometime towards the end of the week, maybe Sunday,” he said.

Senior negotiators from the United States, Qatar and Turkey on Wednesday joined talks in Egypt to end the war in Gaza as mediators increased pressure on Israel and Hamas to resolve differences over implementation of Trump’s plan.

State-linked Egyptian media reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law who participated in drafting the plan, arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh to attend the talks.

“We have a great team there, great negotiators,” Trump said at the White House. He added: “Unfortunately, there are senior negotiators on the other side,” in a clear reference to Hamas. “But it’s something I think will happen.”

Qatar, one of the main mediators, also announced that Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, the Gulf state’s prime minister, would join the negotiations when they reached a critical juncture.

An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent Ron Dermer, one of his closest aides and chief negotiator, to Egypt. Official media reported that Türkiye, which like Qatar hosts political officials from Hamas, sent its intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin.

Despite both Israel and agitation Saying they broadly support Trump’s 20-point plan, there are points of contention between the warring parties.

A diplomat familiar with the talks said that this includes Hamas’s concerns about its disarmament demand, the framework of the gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the role of the international stabilization force that is supposed to be deployed in the Gaza Strip.

The diplomat said progress had been made, adding that the goal of the discussions was to “settle the remaining details and establish an implementation mechanism agreed upon by all parties.”

But the diplomat added that Arab countries are concerned about Netanyahu amending parts of Trump’s plan, which was first presented to Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month.

The diplomat said this included details of the timeline and locations of the redeployment of Israeli forces, and tempered references to the Palestinian Authority, which administers limited parts of the occupied West Bank.

The Arab countries wanted the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to have greater participation in the transitional arrangements for Gaza, believing that this was essential for the legitimacy of the transitional process, while Netanyahu repeatedly rejected any role for the Authority.

The diplomat said: “The point of interest of the Arab countries is the way Netanyahu liberalized the agreement, and Hamas will never accept it.” “We went back to discuss the details to bring it back a little bit to something more realistically acceptable to both sides.”

Hamas has said it is prepared to release the remaining 48 hostages – 20 of whom are believed to be alive – and that it accepts that it will relinquish control of Gaza, which it has ruled since 2007. Under the US plan, the Strip would be governed by a committee of Palestinian technocrats, overseen by an international oversight body led by Trump.

But Hamas did not make much reference to other points in the proposal.

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief negotiator, echoed the movement’s caution about the deal by pointing to Israel’s decision to break a US-brokered ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement in March.

“We were negotiating, but Israel went back to that war. . . Al-Hayya, who was subjected to an Israeli missile attack on Hamas’ office in Doha, told the Egyptian Cairo TV channel that the Israeli occupation throughout history has not adhered to its promises, and therefore we need real guarantees from the international community.

A Western diplomat said that Hamas “is not completely convinced that this agreement is the best thing.”

A Western diplomat said: “They will need actual guarantees because they have already been burned once or twice. The Arabs must come forward… and ask the United States to provide those guarantees.”

A person familiar with the Israeli government’s thinking said that Israel wants to keep the focus of the talks on the first phase of the Trump plan, which revolves around the release of the hostages, and not the long-term terms.

In exchange for Hamas’s release of the hostages, Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, in addition to 1,700 Gazans it arrested after the movement’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.

The potential release of prominent Palestinian figures convicted by Israel of terrorist acts, such as Marwan Barghouti, is expected to spark strong opposition from the Israeli negotiating team and face a backlash within Netanyahu’s far-right coalition.

Hamas pushed for the release of Barghouti, a member of the rival Fatah movement, who is considered the most popular Palestinian leader even though he has spent the past two decades in an Israeli prison.

Hamas said it had handed over a list of names of prisoners it wanted to release in exchange for the release of hostages, but it did not mention their names.