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      US holds direct talks with Hamas in break from decades-old precedent

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      The White House is holding direct talks with Hamas over the return of the Israeli hostages held since 7 October, breaking decades of precedent by engaging with the militant group without intermediaries.Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday that officials had held “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, as the Trump administration has vowed to return all of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza amid a shaky ceasefire deal.Leavitt told reporters that Israel had been consulted on the talks and that the US special envoy Adam Boehler “does have the authority to talk to anyone” when “American lives are at stake”.Hamas members confirmed the reports, saying there had been two direct meetings between US officials and Hamas in Doha, the Qatari capital, in recent days.“Several communications took place between Hamas and various American communication channels, the latest being with a US envoy and discussed the issue of Israeli prisoners who hold American citizenship, both the living and the deceased,” a Hamas official told AFP.Israel said it had conveyed its position on direct talks with Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late on Wednesday, offering no further details.“Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas,” the statement from the prime minister’s office said.“Dialogue and talking to people around the world to do the best interests of the American people is something that the president has proven, is what he believes is good-faith effort to do what’s right for the American people,” Leavitt said.Axios first reported the “secret talks” with Hamas, citing two sources with direct knowledge of meetings held in Doha, Qatar, in recent weeks.The outlet called the talks “unprecedented”, noting that the US had never before engaged with Hamas and that it had declared the group a terrorist organisation in 1997.Fifty-nine hostages are still held by Hamas, though Israeli intelligence believes that only 22 are still alive.Five Americans are believed to still be held by Hamas, one of whom, 21-year-old Edan Alexander, is believed to still be alive.Under the terms of the hostages-for-ceasefire deal, which went into effect on 19 January, Hamas was expected to release hostages weekly in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.After six weeks, Israel and Hamas were expected to enter a second stage of the negotiations, which would make the ceasefire permanent and secure the release of the remaining hostages.But those talks have not progressed and the White House’s decision to engage directly with Hamas appears to be targeted to meet Trump’s goals of securing the release of all hostages held in Gaza.Trump has warned that unless they are released, there will be “hell to pay” in the region, in what appeared to be a threat directed specifically at Hamas.But Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has also pressured Netanyahu to push forward with the negotiations, and was crucial in convincing the Israeli prime minister to sign the original ceasefire deal that went into effect in January.Boehler is tasked with securing the release of Americans who have been “wrongfully detained” by governments or other groups around the world. But it remains unclear whether he is discussing the release of these hostages as part of a longer-term truce, which would mark a significant increase in his authority and indicate that the US could be going around Israel to negotiate an end to the war.Witkoff, the Trump envoy who negotiated the earlier ceasefire and has now been tasked with negotiations with Russia as well, was set to travel to Doha earlier this week to meet the Qatari prime minister about the ceasefire negotiations but “canceled the trip on Tuesday night after he saw there was no progress from Hamas’ side”, a US official told Axios.Trump has broken with Biden administration strategies for resolving the war in Gaza, giving increasing military backing to Israel and suggesting that millions of Palestinians should be forcibly deported to other countries because the Israeli onslaught has made it unsafe to live there. More

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      The Guardian view on Israel’s aid blockade: pushing Palestinians toward catastrophe | Editorial

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      Israel’s decision to block aid to Gaza, as ceasefire talks falter, is a devastating blow to 2 million hungry, vulnerable civilians in the shattered territory. As the occupying power, Israel is legally bound to allow relief into Gaza under the Geneva convention. Denying it isn’t just inhumane – it’s a war crime. But Benjamin Netanyahu already faces an international criminal court arrest warrant for “starvation as a method of warfare” and “crimes against humanity”.Mr Netanyahu’s ability to flout international law is thanks to Donald Trump, who remains firmly in his corner. Washington now appears to accept starvation as an Israeli bargaining chip to pressure Hamas into accepting a US-devised truce extension – one that secures hostage exchanges while ensuring Israeli forces remain in Gaza. Hamas, which sparked the war with its 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians, insists Israel honour its commitment to a second phase of Gaza ceasefire negotiations – ending the fighting and withdrawing troops.Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink. Food is running out, hospitals are unable to function and families scavenge for clean water. Any further aid restrictions will turn desperation into catastrophe. It would be far better for a negotiated peace to be worked out that would see the Palestinians stay to rebuild their lives and for the remaining Israeli hostages to return home.After 15 months of war, and having achieved many of its declared objectives, Israel is no closer to peace in Gaza. That view is echoed by Scott Atran of Paris’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, who polled civilians in Gaza in January, shortly before the ceasefire came into effect. Prof Atran correctly argues that Israel lacks a political strategy for Palestine’s future and is only fuelling Palestinian anger.From the outset, the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive, unilateral approach to Gaza, aligning firmly with Israeli interests while disregarding Palestinian concerns. According to Nabeel Khoury, a former US state department official, the Abraham accords – Mr Trump’s flagship Middle East initiative – remain central to Washington’s evolving strategy, one that envisions Israeli territorial consolidation and unchallenged regional dominance.Mr Khoury has noted the US’s immediate priority is the wholesale removal of Palestinians from Gaza, followed, if conditions permit, by a gradual takeover of the West Bank. That vision coincides with the Washington visit of Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a pro-annexationist who has warned Mr Netanyahu that he would collapse the government if Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza under a truce.An Arab-led plan for Gaza’s post-war reconstruction – allowing its 2 million residents to remain – was rebuffed by the US and Israel. Yet it marked an important show of force: a pan-Arab coalition pushing back against the visible Netanyahu-Trump effort to erase Palestinian self-determination. In contrast, reports suggest the Trump administration is in direct talks with Hamas.If true, this would be a striking reversal of US policy. Engaging Hamas – once deemed untouchable – as a US negotiating partner might be pragmatic realism, an example of Trumpian transactional diplomacy or both. The UN estimated in 2019 that oil and natural gas resources in the occupied Palestinian territories could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for development. But Palestinian national aspirations are impossible under occupation.

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      Trump invites freed Israeli hostage to White House

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      Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television.Excerpts from Sharabi’s moving interview on Israel’s Channel 12 “were shown to Trump, with English subtitles, and he was shocked once again, but also expressed great sympathy for those who survived captivity”, his brother Sharon said, according to a translation from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.Israeli advocacy groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), have posted subtitled versions of the interview online.When Sharabi and two other hostages, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, were released on 8 February alongside after nearly 500 days in captivity, their physical condition outraged Israelis, and Trump. Sharabi was at home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas attacked on 7 October 2023.In the Israeli television interview , Sharabi recalled being tied up, losing consciousness and experiencing extreme hunger.“I remember not being able to fall asleep because of the pain,” he said. “The ropes are already digging into your flesh, and every movement makes you want to scream.”Sharabi’s brother said the freed hostage is flying to the US aboard a plane provided by Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and a major Trump donor.“Tomorrow morning, we’re boarding the plane with Mrs Adelson’s kind help. We’ll arrive to see Trump and explain to him up close the urgency of continuing the first stage or beginning the second stage – it doesn’t really matter,” Sharon Sharabi said, referring to the tenuous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.During the 7 October attack, after the armed group kidnapped Sharabi from his home, they shot the family dog, locked his wife Lianne and their daughters in a safe room, and set it on fire, according to Lianne’s parents, who spoke to the BBC. Sharabi only learned that his wife and daughters had been killed that day after his release.Sharabi’s other brother, Yossi, was also taken hostage that day. He died early last year in Gaza, Israel’s military said, when the Israeli army bombed a building near where he was being held.The Trump administration continues to support Israel amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Friday, it approved a nearly $3bn arms sale to Israel, bypassing congressional review to supply more 2,000lb bombs used in the war against Hamas.Following Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of a blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday, the White House said it “supports” Israel’s decision.At a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sunday, the families of Israelis still being held in Gaza urged their government to stop violating the ceasefire/hostage deal that puts the lives of their loved ones at further risk. More

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      in Elections

      Israel Halts Aid to Gaza and Proposes New Cease-Fire Framework

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      Israel has called for Hamas to accept a temporary extension of the existing cease-fire deal, and to release more hostages.Israel announced on Sunday that it was immediately halting the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance into Gaza, trying to force Hamas into accepting a temporary extension of the cease-fire in the war.The move disrupts the existing, agreed-upon framework for negotiating a permanent end to the war and puts the fate of the hostages into uncharted territory. The draconian halt on goods and aid, including fuel, is also likely to worsen conditions for the roughly two million inhabitants of Gaza, after the 15-month war left much of the coastal enclave in ruins.The initial, six-week phase of the original deal between Israel and Hamas expired on Saturday. Though it was punctured by setbacks and mutual accusations of violations, it ultimately saw at least a temporary cessation in the fighting and the exchange of 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight dead ones for about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. That deal also allowed for a significant increase of aid into Gaza.The next phase of the agreement called for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a commitment to a permanent cease-fire in return for the release of all the remaining living hostages in Gaza, who are being held in inhumane conditions, according to reports from hostages who have been freed.Instead, hours before its announcement about the halt of aid, Israel proposed a seven-week extension of the temporary cease-fire, during which Hamas must release half the remaining living hostages as well as the remains of half the deceased ones. Upon conclusion of that extension, if agreement were reached on a permanent cease-fire, then all the remaining hostages would have to be released, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.“Israel will not allow a cease-fire without the release of our hostages,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Dark Heart of Trump’s Foreign Policy

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      The journalist Fareed Zakaria discusses the worldview emerging from Trump’s foreign policy decisions regarding Ukraine, Gaza, China and beyond.The New York TimesThe Dark Heart of Trump’s Foreign PolicyThe journalist Fareed Zakaria discusses the worldview emerging from Trump’s foreign policy decisions regarding Ukraine, Gaza, China and beyond.This is an edited transcript of an episode of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the conversation by following or subscribing to the show on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.What is the Donald Trump doctrine? What is Donald Trump’s foreign policy?I think the place to begin to try to untangle what we’ve actually seen is to listen to the way Trump and Vice President JD Vance speak about our allies.Archived clip of Donald Trump: I’ve had very good talks with Putin, and I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine. They don’t have any cards, but they play it tough.Archived clip of JD Vance: The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.Archived clip of Donald Trump: I mean, look, let’s be honest: The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it. And they’ve done a good job of it, but now I’m president.Something is new here. The Trump doctrine that we’ve seen in the first month of this presidency is going to reshape the world much more fundamentally than Trump did in the four years of his first term. That’s in part because of who is around him now — JD Vance and Elon Musk, instead of the foreign policy establishment.So I wanted to have a bigger picture conversation about what this Trump doctrine is. I’m joined today by Fareed Zakaria, the host of “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on CNN, a Washington Post columnist and the author of the best-selling book, “Age of Revolutions.”This episode contains strong language.Ezra Klein: Fareed Zakaria, welcome back to the show.Fareed Zakaria: Always a pleasure, Ezra.To the extent you feel you can define it, what’s the Trump doctrine?Part of the problem with Trump is that he is so mercurial. He’s so idiosyncratic that, just when you think you figured out the Trump doctrine, he goes and says something that kind of sounds like the opposite of the Trump doctrine.But I do think that there is one coherent worldview that Trump seems to espouse and has espoused for a long time. The first ad he took out when he was a real estate developer was in 1987. It was an ad about how Japan was ripping us off economically and Europe was ripping us off by free-riding on security. And what that represents, fundamentally, is a rejection of the open international system that the United States and Europe have built over the last eight decades.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What’s Next for the Gaza Truce? Look at the Border With Egypt.

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      Israeli forces are supposed to begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor, a sensitive border zone between Gaza and Egypt, this weekend.As the first phase of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas winds down this weekend, the future of the truce remains murky. What happens in a key strip of land along the border between Egypt and Gaza in the coming week could provide an indication of how things will move forward.Israel is supposed to begin withdrawing troops on Sunday from the border area, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and leave it completely by the following weekend. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has long said that Israeli control there is a core security national interest, injecting uncertainty over this step.Here’s what to look for in the coming days.What is the Philadelphi Corridor?An eight-mile strip of land that divides Gaza from Egypt, the Philadelphi Corridor emerged as a major sticking point in cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas. The border, which divides the city of Rafah, was set up under the Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979. More

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      Anxiety in Gaza and Israel as Cease-Fire Nears End of First Phase

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      A series of hostage-for-prisoner swaps agreed under the first phase of the cease-fire is complete, and no one knows how long the uneasy calm will last.Shamekh al-Dibs has not begun rebuilding his home in northern Gaza, which was destroyed last year. He is living in a nearby school turned into a shelter for displaced Gazans, grappling with a deep uncertainty over whether this tense calm will last.The first phase of the cease-fire elapses on Saturday night and there have been few signs of progress in talks on the next steps. This leaves both Israelis and Palestinians in limbo, not knowing how long the truce will hold after the first series of hostage-for-prisoner exchanges was completed early Thursday morning.“Our only hope is that the cease-fire continues,” said Mr. al-Dibs, 36 and currently unemployed.For now, the first six-week phase of the cease-fire is set to conclude without a clear framework to take its place. That does not necessarily mean an immediate return to war: The agreement says the truce can continue as long as negotiators are working on the next steps. But it makes the already fragile pause in the fighting more precarious.Israel was sending a delegation to Cairo on Thursday to see whether it could find a formula with Hamas to extend the cease-fire in exchange for the release of more hostages, government officials said, without providing further details.Extending the deal will entail tackling much thornier issues, such as a permanent end to the war and the reconstruction of Gaza. Under the terms of the phased agreement, Israel would effectively have to declare an end to its war against Hamas in order to secure the release of some two dozen hostages believed to still be alive.For the families of Israeli captives, the prospect of their loved ones’ release is both closer than ever before and agonizingly distant. They are well aware that formidable obstacles remain to securing their freedom given the lack of an agreement on the second phase of the deal.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israel and Hamas Agree Another Hostage Release and Prisoner Exchange

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      The remains of four Israeli hostages will be turned over in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners whose release had been delayed.Hamas has agreed to release the remains of four Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli officials and the group said, resolving a dayslong impasse between the two sides.The agreement comes as the first phase of a fragile cease-fire deal draws to a close. Negotiators have yet to reach terms to extend the deal into a more comprehensive truce, raising concerns that the fighting in Gaza could resume.During the first phase, Hamas had agreed to free 25 Israeli hostages and hand over the bodies of eight more in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel. On Saturday, Hamas released the last living captives set to be freed in the first phase, and Israel was supposed to release 620 Palestinian prisoners in return.But Israel delayed the release of the prisoners, saying they would not be freed until Hamas committed not to subject hostages to “humiliating ceremonies” during future exchanges. That raised more questions about any next steps for the cease-fire.Late on Tuesday night, Hamas announced that a deal had been reached for the simultaneous release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the remains of the four hostages. Omer Dostri, the spokesman for Israel’s prime minister, confirmed that an agreement had been reached, saying in a text message that the swap would take place on Wednesday night or Thursday.Three hostages who were released on Saturday at a ceremony in Nuseirat, Gaza.Saher Alghorra for The New York TimesSome of the Palestinian prisoners slated for release were convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis, while others — including minors — were held without charge.The impending exchange could be the last in the first phase of cease-fire, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians in limbo. Around 27 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli government.It is unclear whether serious negotiations on the second phase of the agreement have even begun, let alone borne fruit.Mediators have pressed both sides to agree to a second stage. Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, was expected to visit the Middle East on Wednesday in an attempt to move the talks forward. But Mr. Witkoff’s travel to the region has now been delayed, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss his schedule. More