US President Donald Trump sees a "real chance" for a peace agreement in Gaza, as negotiators between Hamas and Israel held indirect talks on the second anniversary of the October 7 attack, AFP reports.
"We're very close to reaching a Middle East agreement that will bring peace to the Middle East," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump said American negotiators were participating in the talks now taking place in Egypt.
"There's a real chance we can do something, Trump said. I think there is a possibility of peace in the Middle East. This is something even beyond the situation in Gaza. We want the immediate release of the hostages. Our team is there now, another team just left and other countries, literally every country in the world, have supported the plan.”
Trump added that the United States would do “everything we can to make sure that everybody abides by the agreement” if Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire to end the war.
The White House said on Monday that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner would play a role.
Israeli tanks, boats and planes bombed parts of Gaza, Reuters reported.
The attack gave Palestinians no respite on the second anniversary of the Hamas attack that led to the war and highlighted the challenges to negotiations on President Trump’s plan to end the conflict.
Israel continued its offensive after Yesterday, Hamas and Israel began indirect talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on sensitive issues such as Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.
October 7 marked the second anniversary of the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip. The anniversary was marked by commemorations in Israel and reactions from world leaders who expressed sympathy for the victims and called for the release of hostages and lasting peace.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants invaded Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting more than 250 hostages, including women, children, and the elderly. It was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel's response was a massive military operation against Gaza, resulting in tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, destroyed neighborhoods, and a humanitarian catastrophe that continues today.
To coincide with the anniversary, key talks began in Cairo, hosted by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, on President Donald Trump's peace plan, which calls for:
the release of all 48 remaining hostages, both dead and alive, within the first 72 hours;
a phased ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza;
a mechanism for international oversight of reconstruction and security in the enclave;
the resumption of political dialogue for a two-state solution.