Negotiators Press for Longer Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire

DOHA, Qatar—The chief brokers of the Israel-Hamas hostage-prisoner exchange are pushing the two sides to prolong the cease-fire in Gaza through the end of the week and start talks on a permanent truce that would end the war altogether, said Egyptian and Qatari officials.

A long-term cease-fire would likely require Israel and Hamas to make hard-to-swallow concessions, such as trading Israeli soldiers for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the officials said. And it would require Israel to hold back on an offensive in southern Gaza intended to capture the strip and kill Hamas’s top leadership, the officials said.

But the officials said that the current temporary truce was building the sort of trust needed to move ahead.

“We are working to strengthen the Qatari mediation role in reaching a truce and then a permanent cease-fire,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday.

In a sign of the seriousness of the talks, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns arrived in Qatar on Tuesday, said a U.S. official and a person familiar with the matter. He is set to attend talks that are also expected to include David Barnea, chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, and senior officials from Qatar, which has close ties to Hamas’s political leadership.

Burns’s and Barnea’s trips to Doha are among multiple visits both have made to Qatar, highlighting the extensive behind-the-scenes role U.S., Israeli and Arab intelligence services are playing in the Gaza diplomacy. Egyptian intelligence services are also playing a key part in speaking to Hamas leaders inside Gaza.

Discussions are initially centered on extending the cease-fire by a further three days in exchange for 10 hostages on each day.

But Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been pressing for a longer pause to the fighting, in the hope it will evolve into a permanent cease-fire, senior Egyptian officials said.

As well as allowing for the release of more hostages, further extensions could give Israel more time to define and prepare for a postwar political settlement in the enclave.

Both Egypt and Qatar hope that by extending the pause, trust can be built between the warring parties, allowing them to negotiate the release of some of the Israeli soldiers among the hostages and achieve a permanent cease-fire.

The fate of these male hostages hasn’t featured in the negotiations so far.

“We are trying to build trust and goodwill to open the door for a long-term peace and a political settlement,” said a senior Egyptian official. “It is a long shot but so far both sides have refrained from seeking military advantage during the pause which gives us hopes that it is doable.”

An extended cease-fire could also help calm tensions in the West Bank and reduce the risk of a larger regional conflict that would draw in other actors, such as Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran, said another Egyptian official.

Israel says it will resume its military operation in Gaza once the current hostage-and-prisoner-release process is exhausted, shifting its focus to the south of Gaza, where most of the population has been pushed.

“We get it. Israel’s goal here is eliminating Hamas but it is an unrealistic goal and that is something both the U.S. and Israel are aware of,” said the second Egyptian official. “We don’t have a clear vision on what happens after the war is over but there are signs the tide is turning.”

There have been hiccups along the way during the implementation of the deal. On Saturday, the hostage release was delayed for hours after Hamas refused to hand over the captives until Israel allowed more aid into the enclave, and contended Israel was violating the terms of an agreement to free Palestinian prisoners in order of jail time served, with the longest-serving to be freed first.

But Egyptian officials said that when they and Qatari officials rushed to save the arrangement, there was a sense that both Hamas and Israel had an interest in prolonging the period of calm.

Al-Ansari, the Qatari spokesman, said Tuesday that the fact that the deal didn’t collapse, despite accusations of violations by both sides, provided some optimism.

Earlier this week, President Biden said that “the chances are real” that the pause could open the door to a longer cease-fire.

Both Israel and Hamas have indicated a willingness to extend the deal based on the formula of one extra day’s pause in fighting for every 10 hostages set free. Israel says 173 hostages remain in Gaza, Hamas, which claims that its members don’t hold all of the hostages, has told mediators it has spoken to other smaller militant groups in the enclave that have agreed to release the people they hold, the officials said. More than 40 of the hostages are currently held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the officials added.

Hamas is expected to release another 10 hostages on Tuesday, the first day of a two-day extension to the deal brokered Monday that is set to see 30 Palestinian prisoners freed and a continuation of the temporary cease-fire.

Egypt received a list of 20 women and children hostages from Hamas after midnight and provided Israel with the names of the 10 expected to be handed over later Tuesday, Egyptian officials said.

Over the past four days, Hamas has released 50 Israeli hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel as part of their initial agreement. Israel had also committed to allowing at least 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip daily.

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, released 11 Israeli hostages Monday night as part of the original deal. The latest group, which included no Americans, comprised dual nationals including six citizens of Argentina, three French citizens and two German citizens, according to Qatari officials.

All 11 came from one Israeli kibbutz, Nir Oz, from which 77 people were abducted, the community said on Monday. Among those released, the community said, were a pair of 3-year-old twins and their mother.

With women and children having been released first, elderly men could be next, followed by the bodies of deceased hostages, according to Egyptian officials. Hamas has so far ruled out releasing younger Israeli men.

Israel launched its military operation on Gaza in response to Hamas’s surprise assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and ended days later with more than 200 people abducted to Gaza as hostages.

So far 14,800 people in Gaza have been killed in the war, including some 6,000 children and 4,000 women, according to the authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza. The figures don’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

Efforts to extend the pause in fighting came amid rising international pressure on Israel, whose military offensive has also triggered a spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza and forced most of the two million residents from their homes.

The Biden administration has taken pains to point out its efforts on behalf of ordinary Palestinians living in Gaza. On Tuesday, the U.S. is sending the first of three military cargo planes to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza via Egypt, senior administration officials said.

The aircraft will deliver medical equipment, food, winter assistance and other aid from the United Nations, officials said. Administration officials said the delivery isn’t linked to the release of hostages, though officials are taking advantage of the pause in fighting to get aid into Gaza.

The U.S. had already helped to coordinate five commercial flights to Egypt laden with aid for the enclave, officials said. But the three arriving Tuesday are the first U.S. military aircraft involved in deliveries and are expected to be followed by more, officials said.

“When this current phase of hostage releases is over, we have made very clear that this level, or increased levels ideally, needs to be sustained,” said another administration official.

U.S. officials are also eager to help allow commercial goods to get into Gaza, but doing so would take the support of Israel as it considers its approach to the second phase of the conflict in the south of the enclave, U.S. officials said.

Gordon Lubold in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Summer Said at [email protected], Stephen Kalin at [email protected] and Saeed Shah at [email protected]