Israeli Security Chiefs Join Critical Talks for a Cease-Fire in Gaza

Pressure is on to reach a deal that would see Hamas release at least some hostages before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

Israeli security and policy chiefs arrived in Qatar on Sunday for high-level talks about a proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza that would see hostages released in the final days of President Biden’s term and before Donald J. Trump takes office.

Biden administration officials have been pressing for a deal that would become part of the departing president’s legacy, and Mr. Trump has warned that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the hostages before he is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Lower-level negotiations have been underway in recent weeks after months of deadlock.

While some progress has been made, disagreements remain on several key points, including the timing and extent of Israel’s redeployments and withdrawal from Gaza and its willingness to ultimately end the war, according to several officials and a Palestinian familiar with the matter. They were speaking on the condition of anonymity because the talks are being held in secrecy and they were not authorized to discuss details publicly.

Representatives of the departing and incoming U.S. presidents have been cooperating on the issue, the Biden administration has said, while Qatar and Egypt are mediating between Israel and Hamas.

Brett M. McGurk, Mr. Biden’s Middle East coordinator, was already in Doha, Qatar’s capital, putting together the final details of a text agreement to present to the two sides, Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said Sunday on “State of the Union” on CNN.

“We are very, very close, and yet being very close still means we’re far because until you actually get across the finish line we’re not there,” Mr. Sullivan said.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken referred to months of efforts to reach a deal, saying in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” that “we’re very close to a cease-fire and hostage agreement.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Biden spoke by phone later Sunday. The two leaders discussed the current negotiations in Doha for a cease-fire and hostage release deal, according to statements from the White House and Mr. Netanyahu’s office. Mr. Netanyahu “thanked President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump for cooperating in this sacred mission,” according to the prime minister’s office.

Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s intended Middle East envoy, met Mr. Netanyahu in Israel on Saturday. On Friday, Mr. Witkoff was in Doha and met the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, for talks that focused on efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza, according to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office announced late Saturday that he had discussed the issue with Israel’s security chiefs and with negotiators from both the departing and incoming American administrations. He also instructed Israel’s top negotiators — including David Barnea, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency — to leave for Qatar with the goal of advancing a deal, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said.

Disagreements between Israel and Hamas remain the fundamental issue of the permanency of any cease-fire, with Mr. Netanyahu still unwilling to declare an end of the war as part of a three-phase agreement that Mr. Biden laid out last May.

Israel is insisting on a vaguer formula that leaves room for ambiguity and for a resumption of fighting at some point, according to the Palestinian familiar with the matter and two Israeli officials. Another official familiar with the matter said the Americans were supposed to provide mediators with a guarantee that the United States would work to bring the war to an end, though Israel has not agreed to any exact phrasing.

Hamas is also demanding detailed maps from Israel showing where it will withdraw to, but Israel has not provided them, according to the officials and the Palestinian familiar with the matter. They added that disagreements remain about the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land abutting Gaza’s border with Egypt, although the two Israeli officials said the sides were close to resolving this point.

These two officials added that the sides were close to a compromise that would allow Israel to carry out military operations during the first phase of the deal up to a kilometer inside Gaza, or almost two-thirds of a mile. Israel had wanted the ability to maneuver up to 1.5 kilometers into Gaza, they said. The Palestinian familiar with the matter said Hamas had wanted any incursions limited to within 500 meters of the border.

Nearly 100 hostages who were seized during the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, out of roughly 250 who were taken. Israel believes at least a third of the remaining hostages are dead.

Israel and Hamas have both shown signs of wanting to resolve the outstanding issues, as pressure mounts from the United States and the Israeli public. Last week Hamas representatives indicated that the group had approved an Israeli list of 34 hostages to be released in the first stage of an agreement.

But Israel said last week that it had not received any information from Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list, which includes those it considers the most vulnerable and urgent cases: women and children, men over 50 and several sick or injured hostages.

Hamas has also agreed to Israel’s request to include 11 contested individuals on the list of hostages to be released in the first phase of a deal. Israel classifies these as civilians, but Hamas considers them soldiers, according to the two Israeli officials and the Palestinian. Israel is weighing Hamas’s demand that the 11 be treated as soldiers who would be exchanged for a higher number of Palestinian prisoners than those released for civilian hostages.

Israel has demanded a list from Hamas of which hostages remain alive. Without that, Israeli officials say, there can be no agreement on how many Palestinian prisoners Israel would be willing to release in exchange for them. As of Sunday morning, Israel had not received a list of hostages who are still alive, according to one of the officials familiar with the matter.

The body of one of the hostages whose name appeared on the list of 34 — Youssef Ziyadne, 53, an Arab citizen of Israel — was located last week by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza along with the remains of his son, Hamza Ziyadne, who was also captured during the 2023 attack.

The Israeli military brought the remains of both men back to Israel for burial.

Mr. Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said that Mr. Biden stressed that the main obstacle to a deal had been Hamas.

“We are not by any stretch of the imagination setting this aside,” Mr. Sullivan said. “There is a possibility this comes together. There’s also a possibility, as has happened so many times before, that Hamas in particular remains intransigent.”

Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.