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Though significant issues remain to be hashed out between Israel and Hamas, some are saying that after two years of death and destruction, a breakthrough may be near.
Oct. 6, 2025, 4:56 a.m. ET
Under pressure to end the war in Gaza after two brutal years of combat, negotiators for Israel and Hamas will meet on Monday with mediators in Egypt to discuss a sweeping peace plan presented by President Trump last week.
Much still remains unresolved.
The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, are likely to focus on two aspects of the 20-point proposal that Mr. Trump unveiled: exchanging Israeli-held Palestinians for captives taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that set off the war, and an Israeli pullback from parts of Gaza.
Israel believes that about 20 hostages are still alive in Gaza, and also seeks the remains of about 25 others. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Sunday that Hamas had “agreed to the president’s hostage release framework.”
Under that plan, the hostages will be exchanged for 250 Palestinians prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans jailed by Israel during the war. For every hostage whose remains are released, Israel will also release the remains of 15 Gazans.
While the plan calls for the release of the hostages within 72 hours of Israel agreeing to it, that would be logistically difficult, experts say. And the two sides have yet to agree on which Palestinian prisoners will be released.
Those are just some of the issues that remained to be hashed out.
On Friday, Hamas said it was willing to release the hostages. But Hamas has not addressed major points in the American peace plan, among them demands that it has objected to in the past. The proposal, for example, calls on the group to disarm and for it to have no role in the governance of Gaza — both key Israeli positions that Hamas has long rejected.
