Gaza peace talks begin in Egypt as Israel marks two years since deadly attack

A U.S. delegation is in Egypt to push President Trump's peace plan. Israeli and Hamas officials are there.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Talks began in Egypt today to implement President Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza. Israeli and Hamas officials are there in Egypt. They'll be joined by U.S. envoys for the indirect talks. The meetings are taking place as Israel commemorates those killed and abducted on October 7, 2023, so exactly two years ago tomorrow. Here to tell us more is NPR's Ruth Sherlock, one of our team of reporters covering all these developments. Hey, Ruth.

RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hey.

KELLY: Hey. So just to lay out the stakes, the death toll in Gaza now stands at more than 67,000 people. That's according to health officials there. The war is now moving into its third year, and President Trump is warning he will back Israel to the hilt if Hamas does not sign his deal. So what do we know about how these talks are going?

SHERLOCK: Well, you know, Trump is asking all sides to move fast to complete parts of the deal even this week. But the reality is this could take longer than Trump suggests. There's a lot that still needs to be worked out. Both sides have to agree, for example, which Palestinian prisoners Israel will release. And Hamas says the remains of some of the dead hostages are under rubble, and they need a significant pause in Israeli bombardment to be able to exhume them. So both sides are also coming to the negotiations, you know, seeking maximal concessions. A source in the region close to the talks, who asked NPR not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media, they estimate that there could be a breakthrough in the next seven to 14 days.

KELLY: Seven to 14 days - OK, what about, Ruth, people inside Gaza? How are people in Gaza viewing these peace talks?

SHERLOCK: Well, the truth is, Mary Louise, you know, every day counts here. Every day more people are dying, and many Gazans live in unspeakable conditions, with famine in some areas. NPR's Anas Baba met with Mohammed Nassar, a 31-year-old father in Gaza City. The city is now the focus of intense Israeli bombardment and a ground offensive where whole neighborhoods are being turned to rubble. Israel had issued an evacuation order for the school block where he'd been sheltering.

MOHAMMED NASSAR: (Speaking Arabic).

SHERLOCK: He's saying, "we didn't know where to go. We took our children and ran through the streets." They eventually spent the night outside by the hospital, hoping that would be safer. But there were no walls between them and the bombardments, which he described as hell beyond imagination. He told Baba it brought him unbelievable joy hearing that Hamas may soon release Israeli hostages, seeing it as a glimmer of hope for peace. And most Gazans are just desperate for an end to the bombardment.

KELLY: And then bring us some of the reporting from inside Israel, which is marking the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack, as I mentioned, in 2023. That attack left something like 1,200 people dead, another 250 or so people taken as hostages. What is the mood right now inside Israel?

SHERLOCK: Yeah. My colleague Emily Feng went to the Nir Oz kibbutz in Israel, which still has nine hostages in Gaza. She attended a gathering in the cemetery among gravestones from people who'd died in the October 7 attack, and it was a somber moment of remembrance.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in non-English language).

SHERLOCK: Families of the hostages are doing everything they can to keep up the pressure for a deal, even pushing the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the peace prize to President Trump. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, he described Hamas' October 7 attacks as an inhuman massacre of innocent people but also said Israel's offensive disregards, quote, "the fact that it is targeting a largely defenseless population already pushed to the brink."

KELLY: That's NPR's Ruth Sherlock in Rome. Thank you, Ruth.

SHERLOCK: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAY IWAR SONG, "REFLECTION STATION")

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