Under pressure to end the war in the Gaza Strip after two brutal years of combat, negotiators for Israel and Hamas will meet Monday with mediators in Egypt to discuss a sweeping peace plan presented by President Donald Trump last week.

Much still remains unresolved.

The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, are likely to focus on two aspects of the 20-point proposal Trump unveiled: exchanging Israeli-held Palestinians for captives taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that set off the war, and an Israeli pullback from parts of Gaza.

Israel believes that about 20 hostages are still alive in Gaza, and also seeks the remains of about 25 others. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Sunday that Hamas had “agreed to the president’s hostage release framework.”

Under that plan, the hostages will be exchanged for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza who were jailed by Israel during the war. For every hostage whose remains are released, Israel will also release the remains of 15 Palestinians from Gaza.

While the plan calls for the release of the hostages within 72 hours of Israel agreeing to it, that would be logistically difficult, experts say. And the two sides have yet to agree on which Palestinian prisoners will be released.

Issues to Be Hashed Out

Those are just some of the issues that remained to be hashed out.

On Friday, Hamas said it was willing to release the hostages. But Hamas has not addressed major points in the U.S. peace plan, among them demands that it has objected to in the past. The proposal, for example, calls on the group to disarm and for it to have no role in the governance of Gaza — both key Israeli positions that Hamas has long rejected.

Questions also remain about the withdrawal of Israeli forces from positions in Gaza.

In a social media post Saturday, Trump said Israel had already agreed to an initial withdrawal line within Gaza for the first phase of the deal.

“When Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective, the Hostages and Prisoner Exchange will begin, and we will create the conditions for the next phase of withdrawal,” he pledged.

But Hamas may still seek to negotiate those lines.

In previous talks on ending the conflict, Hamas agreed to Israeli troops withdrawing into a buffer zone near Gaza’s border with Israel. But Trump’s plan would leave Israeli forces deeper in Gaza, and Hamas has signaled that it may object to elements of the plan.

In a speech to Israelis over the weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to cast the Trump plan as a victory. He said the stage for a possible deal to end to the war had been set by his decision to keep up the pressure on Hamas with a devastating military campaign, which drew condemnation from much of the world. He also cited diplomatic efforts.

Members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition have long objected to a deal and have threatened to dissolve his government if he agrees to one. The prime minister has sought to appease them, but he is also under pressure from many Israelis who want a hostage deal and an end to the conflict, as well as from the international community, not least Trump.

On Saturday, Trump posted images of Israelis rallying in Tel Aviv for a hostage deal. He added no comments, but the images appeared to speak for themselves.

Defying Trump does not appear to be an option, even for Netanyahu. By Saturday, the Israeli military was limiting its actions to what Israeli officials called defensive operations and responses to immediate threats.

Hamas Under Pressure

Hamas, too, is under pressure to end the war.

Many Palestinians in Gaza see the Trump proposal as their best hope after nearly two years of extreme privation and repeated displacement. Much of Gaza has been destroyed, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, including thousands of children, and Trump has said Israel will have a green light to destroy Hamas if the group does not agree to a deal.

Trump demanded on social media that Israel stop bombing Gaza to allow the agreement with Hamas to move forward. The Israeli military instructed its forces to focus on defense, curbing military operations in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

The fighting on the ground has nonetheless continued. The Israeli military said it launched multiple attacks Sunday against what it described as militants threatening troops. Emergency workers in Gaza said they had been unable to reach some of those killed because they were in combat zones.

Israel and Hamas have held indirect talks off and on throughout the war, with negotiations generally falling apart. Rubio conceded Sunday that the war was not yet over and that there was work to be done, but he said this time could be different.

“What gives you hope here is that at least there is now a framework for how all this can come to an end,” he said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Ephrat Livni/Saher Alghorra
c. 2025 The New York Times Company