Talks between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza and free the remaining hostages appear increasingly deadlocked, according to officials familiar with the discussions, suggesting that President Biden will probably leave the White House without an agreement on a cease-fire.
Mediators have been conducting months of shuttle diplomacy, and Israeli and Hamas officials said in December that there had been progress before blaming the other side for throwing up fresh obstacles.
Negotiations have stalled amid gaps between the two sides, the officials said, and the future of the talks is uncertain. Qatar and Egypt have led the mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas with involvement from the United States.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened that there will be “HELL TO PAY” in the Middle East unless there was an agreement to free the hostages by his inauguration on Jan. 20. It is far from clear how he intends to follow through on the threat and an incoming Trump administration would most likely face the same entrenched dynamic that has thwarted Mr. Biden’s efforts.
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to eradicate Hamas in Gaza after last year’s Oct. 7 attacks, in which about 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 250 taken hostage in Gaza. More than 15 months into the war, roughly 100 hostages remain in Gaza, dozens of whom Israeli authorities believe to be dead.
Hamas has said it would not release any more hostages unless Israel agreed to end the war, completely withdraw its forces and release scores of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Mr. Biden’s advisers made a last-ditch effort to put together a final agreement before he left office. In December, Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, raised optimism by declaring that U.S. officials hoped for a cease-fire deal “this month,” citing a weakened Hamas and a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The surround sound of these negotiations is different today than it has been in the past,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters during a news conference at the time in Tel Aviv.
After rounds of talks, Hamas accused Israel last week of introducing “new conditions,” leading to a “delay in reaching an agreement that was within reach.” Mr. Netanyahu accused Hamas of “reneging on understandings.”
Hamas was still demanding an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal, although it was willing to be flexible about the timetable for both, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, told the Al Jazeera broadcaster in late December.
“We made our flexibility clear,” he said. “But the Israeli delegation did not offer any basic commitments such as ending the war and fully withdrawing.”
For its part, Israel is frustrated that Hamas has not handed over a list of the living hostages whom it is holding in Gaza, according to an Israeli official and another official familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
One of the officials confirmed that Israel had not committed to ending the war, but hoped that all sides could live with a degree of vagueness in the text of the agreement.
The families of hostages say they fear each additional day their relatives remain captive in Gaza could seal their fates.
Israel and Hamas last came to an agreement in November 2023, when they observed a weeklong cease-fire that freed 105 Israeli and foreign hostages — mostly women and children — in return for 240 Palestinians jailed in Israel.
Israeli soldiers have freed eight hostages by force. The bodies of at least 38 hostages have been brought back to Israel, according to the Israeli government.
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