Americans are very anxious.
Adam Boehler, a senior U.S. official, hopes Hamas agrees to release the last alive U.S. Israel hostages in the Gaza Strip so that President Trump can declare freedom in his speech to Congress.
According to four familiar discussions, when Mr. Trump arrived at the Capitol, both sides were still bargaining, and they failed to reach the deadline, which led to the president mentioning only the hostages in Gaza.
Nevertheless, decades of hatred took place the next day, and these talks eschewed decades of hostility, demonstrating the desire for a deal.
It all begins and ends in March. Despite the US’s attack on October 7, 2023, supporting Israel in Gaza’s campaign, killing about 1,200 Israeli people, Trump administration officials met with senior Hamas officials in Qatar three times. The meeting rested with the long-standing policy of engagement with armed groups, which the United States considered to be a terrorist organization.
Mr. Trump released all hostages as a key goal, aiming to show success where the Biden administration struggles. However, his comments on the hostages were largely covered up by tariff talks and Iran’s diplomacy during a meeting this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The march negotiations highlighted the Trump administration’s temporary diplomatic approach. But Edan Alexander has never been together in the face of an angry Israeli opposition, Hamas’ hesitation and the Trump administration’s changing stance of the agreement to release hostages.
The account is based on conversations with six people familiar with closed-door meetings, all of whom discussed the situation of sensitive diplomacy on anonymity.
The negotiations separate from Israel, and the Hamas deadlock attempts to expand the beleaguered ceasefire. The first phase of the agreement signed in January failed to transition to the second phase, which called for the end of the war and the evacuation of Israel from Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu said the war would not end until Hamas’ military forces and government were demolished, and Hamas seemed willing to give up control of civilian governments, not weapons.
The deadlock made the impression of U.S. officials until Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza, allowing the bodies of Mr. Alexander and four other Israeli Americans to be released. They said Mr. Boller believes that Hamas might want to make a gesture to Mr. Trump and that a deal could build momentum in serious discussions about the second phase.
The White House National Security Council did not respond to this article’s request for comment.
On the day of the first meeting, during Ramadan, during the Muslim Holy Month, three Hamas officials welcomed private equity investor Mr. Boehler, a special envoy for hostage affairs, Mr. Boehler, his advisor and his advisor, recently Harvard Business School graduate. Their large mural at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and a photo of Ismail Haniyeh is a photo of Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, who was killed in Israel in July.
By midnight passed, officials reflected on the historical nature of the conference and ate in Middle Eastern pastries (Middle Eastern pastries) before drinking fresh orange juice. They also discussed the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the October 7 attack, four people familiar with the dialogue said.
According to four people, Hamas officials, Tah Nono, Basm Naim and Osama Hamdan worked hard to appeal to the sensitivity of their American counterparts. Mr. Al-Nono argued that Hamas was trying to provide freedom to the Palestinians – a value he said was cherished by Americans. According to Gaza’s health authorities, which did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, about 50,000 people were killed in the war, and some protesters in Gaza called on Hamas to resign.
The four said that two days after the first meeting, Mr. Boller returned to speak with Khalil Al-Hayya, senior negotiator in Hamas. Mr. Al-Hayya said Hamas would normally ask for the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody in exchange for hostages like Mr. Alexander, but for a good gesture and to save time, it only requires 250, including 100 life-serving.
Mr. Al-Hayya said he believes the United States can push the Israelis to release many people, which is what two people familiar with the discussion said.
Hamas spokesman Mr. Al-Hayya and Mr. Naim’s assistant did not respond to detailed requests for comment. A Palestinian official confirmed extensive details of the negotiations on anonymous condition.
Later that day, Mr. Boller offered life sentences to 100 prisoners and promised to release 150 low-level prisoners on a future date in exchange for Mr. Alexander, according to three people familiar with the matter.
There are about 300 prisoners in Israel who are detained in life imprisonment, and officials are cautious about the substitute hostages in exchange for a single hostage.
Mr. Boehler is under pressure from Israel for negotiations. He received an angry call from Mr. Netanyahu’s adviser Ron Dermer, who was frustrated that Mr. Boer did not inform Israel’s adviser in advance, according to two people familiar with the matter. The next day, Axios reported that Mr. Boehler met with Hamas – U.S. officials said they believed Israeli officials were orchestrating the plan to undermine the negotiations. Mr Dermer did not return a request for comment.
The United States often negotiates with Israel on sensitive national security matters, but Trump administration officials may not want to put Israeli officials in the loop, as Israel interrupted previous attempts to meet with Hamas leaders.
In this case, after Mr. Trump took office on January 20, Mr. Boller traveled to Doha, Qatar, where he hoped to meet Hamas officials, among other reasons. But Israeli officials intervened with the White House when the Israeli Prime Minister’s office seized on Mr. Boer’s plan. The White House canceled the meeting.
At the March meeting, Mr. Buller had close contact with Mr. Steve Witkoff of Trump’s Middle East envoy, coordinated positions and provided updates, the two said.
U.S. officials no longer think their proposal is possible before the third and final meeting with Hamas on March 5. They believed that what they could best propose was 100 prisoners without guaranteeing that they would serve their sentences for Mr. Alexander.
The proposal will also include the release of Palestinian women and children for four bodies of Israeli American hostages, the resumption of the delivery of aid to Gaza and the dispatch of Mr. Witkov to iron out details of the exchange with Mr. Doha’s plan, and the initiation of a dialogue on the second phase, which is about the second phase of the second phase. A few days ago, Israel cut off aid from territory that put pressure on Hamas.
The meeting also deals with Hamas’ vision for the future of Gaza. Mr. Al-Hayya told his American interlocutor that Hamas was open to a five-to-ten-year truce and that the group would lay down its weapons.
Among other suggestions, Al-Hayya said Hamas hoped that two leaders of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation were convicted in the U.S. in 2008, where he provided “material support” to the group and released the organization.
At the end of the last meeting, Mr. Boehler told Mr. Al-Hayya that his latest proposal was the last one and that if Hamas did not accept it when the plane took off within a few hours, it might no longer be on the dining table. Mr. Al-Hayya suggested that Hamas would not accept it, even if he wanted the deal himself.
A week later, Hamas issued a statement saying it was ready to reach an agreement to release the bodies of Mr. Alexander and the U.S. Israeli hostages. The proposal is similar to that made by Mr. Boehler, two people familiar with its contents said.
But it was too little, too late: Mr. Boller no longer negotiated directly with the organization. When Mr. Witkov traveled to Doha in mid-March, he asked Hamas to agree to release multiple living hostages at the end of the war without guarantees.
A few days later, Israel held a bombing campaign in Gaza, and Mr. Alexander was still imprisoned.
Abu Bakr Bashir A report was contributed to this article.
