Expanded session of Gaza ceasefire talks opens in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh

ISTANBUL

An expanded session of Gaza ceasefire negotiations began in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday to reach an agreement to end the Israeli war on the enclave under US President Donald Trump’s plan, Egyptian media said.

According to the state-run Al-Qahera News channel, besides US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the list of participants includes Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

A delegation from the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad is also set to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday night to participate in the talks, according to a statement by the group.

Hamas, for its part, welcomed the participation of the Qatari premier and the Turkish and Egyptian intelligence chiefs in the negotiations.

Their participation “gives the negotiations a strong impetus to achieve positive outcomes, such as ending the war and exchanging prisoners, while narrowing (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's room for maneuver to continue the aggression and derail the negotiations,” senior Hamas member Izzat al-Rishq said in a statement.

Hamas and Israel have held indirect negotiations in Egypt since Monday in an attempt to reach an agreement to end two years of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

On Sept. 29, Trump unveiled a 20-point proposal that includes the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas, and the rebuilding of Gaza. Hamas agreed to the plan in principle.

The Israeli military has killed nearly 67,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave all but uninhabitable and has led to mass displacement, starvation and the proliferation of disease.