CIA director holds Gaza talks with Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials
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CIA director Bill Burns is meeting senior Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials in Doha on Wednesday in hopes of closing remaining gaps in the framework of the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal and moving to detailed negotiations, sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Axios.
Why it matters: Israeli and U.S. officials are more optimistic than ever before about the potential of reaching a deal.
- The White House is pressing all relevant parties to close the deal, which could secure the release of 120 hostages and end the nine-month war in Gaza — or at least lead to a 42-day pause in the fighting and the release of some hostages, including American citizens.
- The long-sought deal would deliver a huge foreign policy win for President Biden, who is fighting to restore trust in his leadership inside the Democratic Party and around the world.
Catch up quick: A key remaining gap centers on Hamas' demand for written commitments from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar that negotiations over the second phase of the deal will continue, with no time limit, while the first phase of the deal is underway.
- Israel believes the issue can and should be resolved during the talks in Doha in order to proceed to detailed negotiations on the implementation of the agreement, according to Israeli and U.S. officials.
- Sticking points also remain on implementation issues, such as the timetable for the Israel Defense Forces' redeployment in Gaza, the identity and sequence of the Palestinian prisoners who will be released from Israeli prisons, and whether Israel will be able to veto the release of some prisoners.
Driving the news: Burns arrived in Doha on Tuesday after talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and a trilateral meeting with senior Egyptian and Israeli security officials.
- On Tuesday evening, Burns met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, who is one of the key mediators between Hamas and Israel, a source with knowledge of the meeting said.
- On Wednesday, Burns held a joint meeting with the Qatari prime minister, the director of the Israeli Mossad and the director of Egyptian intelligence, the source said.
- At the same time, Biden's top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, met in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu said in a statement that he told McGurk he is committed to a hostage and ceasefire deal "as long as Israel's red lines are preserved."
- Gallant told McGurk it's important to seize this opportunity to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
- The Ministry of Defense said Gallant also told McGurk that Israel wants to establish a mechanism that would prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, thus cutting off supplies to Hamas.
- Gallant added that Israel supports the reopening of the Rafah crossing, as long as it is not done with the involvement of Hamas.
Behind the scenes: Israeli and U.S. officials told Axios the talks that took place in Egypt on Monday and Tuesday made progress on the issue of securing the Egypt-Gaza border and reopening the Rafah crossing.
- Two Israeli officials said there was a joint understanding by the U.S., Egypt and Israel of the need to block the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border and prevent arms smuggling to Hamas through underground tunnels.
- The Israeli officials said the U.S. showed great willingness to be directly involved in building infrastructure on the border, such as an underground "wall" that detects attempts to dig tunnels so that they can be destroyed in real time.
