As Biden’s Term Ends, Gaza Truce Efforts Proceed Cautiously

Talks between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza and free the remaining hostages have appeared to make little headway, according to officials familiar with the discussions, as the clock runs down on the Biden administration’s remaining days to reach an agreement on a cease-fire.

Israel has kept up with its campaign in Gaza even as mediators have conducted months of shuttle diplomacy. Israeli and Hamas officials said in December that there had been progress toward a deal, before each blamed the other side for throwing up fresh obstacles.

Gaps have persisted amid differences between the two sides, the officials said, and the future of the talks is uncertain. Qatar and Egypt have led the mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas with involvement from the United States.

The Israeli government said on Thursday night that it would soon send a midlevel delegation of security officials to attend another round of talks in Qatar. At the same time, Hamas officials were in Cairo for discussions with Egyptian officials on how to overcome the impasse, according to a person in contact with Hamas leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details about the visit, which had not been publicized.

But it was far from clear whether Israel and Hamas were ready to move ahead in the coming days. Numerous rounds of negotiations have seen hopes rise only to be dashed amid gaps in the two sides’ demands.

Airstrikes in Gaza continued on Thursday, with an Israeli attack killing Mahmoud Salah, the head of Gaza’s police force, and Hussam Shahwan, a top aide, in an airstrike in southern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run government media office.

The Israeli military claimed responsibility for killing Mr. Shahwan in a strike in al-Mawasi — a coastal area where many Palestinians have crowded into an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone — describing him as one of the heads of Hamas’s internal security force. It did not comment on Mr. Salah’s death. Gaza’s Civil Defense emergency service said “several” people were killed and wounded in the strike, including children.

Israel says it targets Hamas and does everything possible to limit the loss of civilian life. The Israeli military has set aside humanitarian zones it designates as safer, but has made clear that it will target Hamas anywhere it believes it to be.

The increasingly dire humanitarian situation has prompted a chorus of condemnation from the United Nations and international human rights organizations, as well as diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened that there will be “ALL HELL TO PAY” in the Middle East unless there is an agreement to free the hostages by his inauguration on Jan. 20. It is far from clear how he intends to follow through on the threat and an incoming Trump administration would most likely face the same entrenched dynamic that has thwarted Mr. Biden’s efforts.

Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to eradicate Hamas in Gaza after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 250 taken hostage in Gaza. More than 15 months into the war, roughly 100 hostages remain in Gaza, dozens of whom Israeli authorities believe are dead. More than 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the Gazan health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hamas has said it would not release any more hostages unless Israel agreed to end the war, completely withdraw its forces and release scores of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Mr. Biden’s advisers made a last-ditch effort to put together a final agreement before he left office. In December, Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, raised optimism by declaring that U.S. officials hoped for a cease-fire deal “this month,” citing a weakened Hamas and a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The surround sound of these negotiations is different today than it has been in the past,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters during a news conference at the time in Tel Aviv.

After rounds of talks, Hamas accused Israel last week of introducing “new conditions,” leading to a “delay in reaching an agreement that was within reach.” Mr. Netanyahu subsequently accused Hamas of “reneging on understandings.”

Hamas was still demanding an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal, although it was willing to be flexible about the timetable for both, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, told the Al Jazeera broadcaster in late December.

“We made our flexibility clear,” he said. “But the Israeli delegation did not offer any basic commitments such as ending the war and fully withdrawing.”

For its part, Israel is frustrated that Hamas has not handed over a list of the living hostages whom it is holding in Gaza, according to an Israeli official and another official familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

One of the officials confirmed that Israel had not committed to ending the war, but hoped that all sides could live with a degree of vagueness in the text of the agreement.

The families of hostages say they fear each additional day their relatives remain captive in Gaza could seal their fates.

Israel and Hamas last came to an agreement in November 2023, when they observed a weeklong cease-fire that freed 105 Israeli and foreign hostages — mostly women and children — in return for 240 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Israeli soldiers have freed eight hostages by force. The bodies of at least 38 hostages have been brought back to Israel, according to the Israeli government. At the end of 2023, Israeli troops mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages during combat with Hamas in northern Gaza.