Palestinian Hamas negotiators are led by Khalil al-Hayya, whom Israel recently tried to kill in Qatar. The delegation is to talk to the mediators on Monday about the framework for the upcoming negotiations, writes The Times of Israel.
These first talks take place in Cairo, while the actual negotiations will then be held in Sharm el-Sheikh.
In the well-known resort town, delegations from Israel and the USA will join. The Israelis are led by Ron Dermer, minister from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party Likud. At the forefront of the US representatives is President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
According to Al Jazeera, the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh will not begin on Monday.
Does not fall now
But despite this hesitant start, Israeli media are breathing cautious optimism. The TV channel Keshet 12 reports that the far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, at a meeting with Netanyahu, signaled that they now give the talks a chance. Previously, they have said that they will bring down the government, but now they are said to have promised that the Prime Minister will have relatively free hands to implement the first phase of the peace process.
That phase means that Hamas releases its hostages, in exchange for Israel releasing a large number of high-profile prisoners and that the country's forces withdraw within the Gaza Strip.
According to the reports, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are saving their ultimatums for phase two. The idea is that Hamas will then be completely disarmed, and Israel's settler right wants Netanyahu to retain the opportunity to start the war again if that does not happen.
Tense atmosphere
At the same time, Donald Trump, who is behind the 20 points of the peace plan, is crucial to how much Netanyahu will be pressed to compromise. The atmosphere between the two men is reported to have been tense over the weekend. According to the news site Axios, the Israeli leader thought that Trump reacted a bit too happily on Friday to the terrorist-stamped Hamas's positive response to the peace plan. The US President is said to have replied:
I do not understand why you are always so damn negative. This is a success. Accept it.
