Ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas entered a third day on Tuesday, 7 October 2025, in Sharm el-Sheikh, with Egypt mediating indirect contacts and senior delegations from Qatar, Turkey and the United States at the table. Qatar’s prime minister is expected to attend on Wednesday to add political weight to the effort.
Talks are built around a 20-point proposal tabled last month by US President Donald Trump, linking a temporary halt in fighting to the release of hostages and expanded humanitarian access. From the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said there is “a real chance we get somewhere,” adding that US negotiators are on the ground and pledging Washington would “do everything” to ensure compliance if a truce is reached. Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said the White House’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will join Wednesday’s session and described Trump as the key guarantor should an agreement be struck.
Qatar has confirmed that Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will participate, while Turkish state media reported that intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin will lead Ankara’s delegation. Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the group is seeking guarantees from President Trump that the war will end definitively. According to officials, the plan’s core elements include a ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the disarmament of Hamas and a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Both sides have responded positively in principle, opening the way for indirect talks in Egypt that began on Monday. A Palestinian source close to the Hamas team said Tuesday’s session examined Israeli maps for troop pullbacks along with timelines and modalities for exchanging hostages and detainees; officials cautioned a prompt agreement is unlikely.
The diplomacy is unfolding on the second anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas assault. As people in Kibbutz Kfar Aza marked the date, smoke from an explosion in Gaza rose on the horizon.
Reuters, drawing on UN and official data, reports that more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to Gaza health authorities, with nearly a third of the dead under 18. Israel says at least 20,000 of those killed were fighters, while the Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. A UN commission of inquiry last month assessed that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejected as biased and “scandalous,” the news agency noted.
On the Israeli side, at least 1,665 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed between 7 October 2023 and 29 September 2025, including 1,200 on the first day of the attack. The Israeli military says 466 soldiers have been killed and 2,951 wounded since its ground operation began on 27 October 2023. Hamas abducted 251 people to Gaza; Israel says 48 hostages remain, 20 believed to be alive. Under the plan being discussed, remaining hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
The physical devastation is vast. Around 193,000 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, including about 213 hospitals and 1,029 schools targeted, according to a UN Satellite Centre analysis reported by Reuters. Only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partly functional, the World Health Organization says, and facilities in the south are overwhelmed. The UN human rights office has voiced grave concern about destruction in Gaza City and warned that any deliberate effort to relocate the population would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Displacement remains acute. The United Nations estimates that only about 18% of the Strip lies outside displacement orders or militarised zones. Since Israel expanded operations in Gaza City in mid-August, more than 417,000 additional displacements from north to south have been recorded, with families crammed into makeshift shelters and services stretched to breaking point, Reuters reported.
As negotiators in Sharm el-Sheikh pore over maps, timelines and exchange mechanisms, the central question is whether the US-backed guarantees can bridge the gap between a limited truce and a definitive end to the war. Families of Israeli hostages continue to press for a deal, while UN agencies warn of famine conditions in Gaza. Both Israel and Hamas face intensifying international scrutiny: rights groups accuse Hamas of war crimes stemming from the 7 October attack; Hamas rejects the allegations.