American officials expressed optimism following the discussions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law. According to the officials, the two sides reached agreement on most of the issues raised by Israel and will now pass the formulations to the Arab states involved in the process.
The sources said there was consensus on the gradual nature of an Israeli withdrawal and Israel's retained freedom of military action if attacked, similar to the current arrangement in Lebanon. Still, at least one matter was left unresolved, to be taken up in Netanyahu's scheduled afternoon meeting with Trump in Washington.
According to the Americans, the meeting could extend into a working lunch. Israeli officials, however, stressed that their optimism was measured, with the impression that some aspects, particularly those dealing with future arrangements such as reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, were being left intentionally ambiguous.
An Israeli official reiterated that regardless of what is achieved in Washington, Hamas, which is not formally participating in the talks, is expected to reject the plan. "Qatar clearly represents the terrorist organization, but I don't see a realistic chance that Hamas would agree to release all the hostages from the outset and hand over full control of Gaza, including security control, to other actors," the official said.
