(Web Desk) - Delegations from Hamas and Israel on Monday began indirect talks in Egypt on ending the nearly two-year war in Gaza, with US President Donald Trump judging that Hamas was ready to compromise over his proposals for a deal.
Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence, said the first round of talks ended "amid a positive atmosphere" and would continue on Tuesday.
Behind closed doors and under tight security, negotiators were to speak through mediators shuttling back and forth, only weeks after Israel tried to kill Hamas's lead negotiators in a strike on Qatar.
Trump told reporters at the White House he was "pretty sure" a peace deal was possible. "I think Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important... I think we're going to have a deal." Hamas's lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who survived Israel's attack on the Palestinian Islamist movement's leaders in Doha last month, held a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials ahead of the talks, an Egyptian security source said.
This round of negotiations, launched on the eve of the second anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war, "may last for several days", said a Palestinian source close to Hamas's leadership.
"We expect the negotiations to be difficult and complex, given the occupation's intentions to continue its war of extermination," he told AFP.
Trump, whose envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Egypt, has urged negotiators to "move fast" to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday.
Both Hamas and Israel have responded positively to Trump's proposal, but reaching an agreement on the details is set to be a huge task.
According to the Palestinian source, the initial hostage-prisoner exchange will "require several days, depending on field conditions related to Israeli withdrawals, the cessation of bombardment and the suspension of all types of air operations". Negotiations will look to "determine the date of a temporary truce", a Hamas official said, as well as create conditions for a first phase of the plan, in which 47 hostages held in Gaza are to be released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was ready to help with hostage and detainee returns and to facilitate aid access across Gaza, where the UN has declared a famine. "The war has destroyed everything I built throughout my life," said Mohammed Abu Sultan, 49, who fled Gaza City with 20 family members to Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. "We have been running from death for two years."
A Palestinian source close to Hamas said it would halt its military operations in parallel with Israel stopping its bombardment and withdrawing its troops from Gaza City.
Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir however warned that if the negotiations failed, then the military would "return to fighting" in Gaza.