ISTANBUL

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman is set to head to Egypt’s Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday to join Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

The prime minister will “join the ongoing negotiations between the concerned parties regarding Gaza, amid intensified regional and international efforts aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said on the US social media company X on Tuesday.

His participation in the meetings “comes at a critical stage of the talks, reaffirming the determination of the mediators to reach an agreement that would bring an end to the catastrophic war in the Gaza Strip,” Ansari said.

Hamas and Israel held a second day of indirect negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday to reach a ceasefire and prisoner swap under US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.

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.