JERUSALEM — Israel and Egypt have privately discussed a possible withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, according to two Israeli officials and a senior Western diplomat, a shift that could remove one of the main obstacles to a cease-fire deal with Hamas.
After more than nine months of war in the Gaza Strip, the discussions between Israel and Egypt are among a flurry of diplomatic actions on multiple continents aimed at achieving a truce and putting the enclave on a path toward postwar governance.
Officials from both Hamas, which ruled Gaza before the war, and Fatah, the political faction that controls the Palestinian Authority, said Monday that China will host meetings with them next week in an effort to bridge gaps between the rival Palestinian groups.
And Israel is dispatching its national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, to Washington this week for meetings at the White House, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Negotiations for a truce appear to have gained momentum in recent days, but several points of contention remain. One involves the length of a cease-fire: Hamas is demanding that it be permanent, while Israel wants one that is temporary.
Hamas has also said that Israeli withdrawal from areas that include the Egypt-Gaza border is a prerequisite for a cease-fire.
The Israeli military took control of Gaza’s southern border over the course of May and June.
The operation forced Hamas away from a strategically important axis through which the group had long smuggled arms and supplies into Gaza; the Israeli military said it has discovered and destroyed numerous tunnels there. But the seizure also strained Israel’s ties with Egypt, which warned that the action would cause considerable harm and could threaten Egypt’s national security.
The Israeli government is reluctant to withdraw, saying that doing so would make it easier for Hamas to restock its arsenal and reestablish authority over Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday that he “insists that Israel remain on the Philadelphi Corridor,” as some call the border area.
But in private discussions last week with the Egyptian government, senior Israeli envoys indicated that Israel might be willing to withdraw if Egypt agreed to measures that would prevent arms smuggling along the border, according to the three officials.
Measures that were proposed included installing electronic sensors that could detect future efforts to dig tunnels, as well as constructing underground barriers to block tunnel construction, the officials said. All three requested anonymity in order to speak more freely about an idea that Israel has not publicly endorsed.
In public, both Israel and Egypt have been reluctant to confirm the existence of the talks. Netanyahu’s ruling coalition needs the support of lawmakers who are opposed to any truce that could leave Hamas in power, and his government could collapse if he acknowledges what his envoys are discussing in private.
When the talks were first reported by Israeli news media and Reuters last week, Netanyahu swiftly dismissed them as “absolute fake news.”
But Netanyahu’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, had suggested in a separate statement earlier in the week that Israel could withdraw under certain circumstances.
“A solution is required that will stop smuggling attempts and will cut off potential supply for Hamas, and will enable the withdrawal of IDF troops from the corridor, as part of a framework for the release of hostages,” the statement said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
When asked for comment Monday, Netanyahu’s office referred The New York Times to the prime minister’s previous statement. The Egyptian government declined to comment.
With U.S. officials expressing renewed optimism over the past week that long-stalled negotiations for a cease-fire were now progressing, discussions on Gaza’s future have taken on greater urgency, including the prospect of Hamas and Fatah working together. Previous attempts to mediate between the two groups — including a meeting in Beijing in April — failed to produce tangible results and many observers have expressed overwhelming pessimism that the talks in the Chinese capital will generate a breakthrough.
For China, hosting the meeting between Hamas and Fatah will serve as yet another opportunity to cast itself as a mediator on the global stage.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, will head the group’s delegation to Beijing, according to Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official. Fatah will dispatch three officials, including Mahmoud al-Aloul, the deputy chair of the party, to the Chinese capital, according to Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Fatah Central Committee.
He said that China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, would meet with the Palestinian factions on July 21 and again on July 23, with the two groups meeting on their own in between. China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We’re always optimistic, but we say that with caution,” Ahmad said in a phone call.
Hamas and Fatah have a fraught history and have been at loggerheads for years, each trying to present itself as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people and wary that the other will undermine its power. They fought a brief, bloody struggle for control of Gaza in 2007 after Hamas won legislative elections.
Their differences were on display over the weekend after Israel killed dozens of Palestinians in an airstrike in southern Gaza that it said was targeting the leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif. The fate of Deif remained unknown Monday.
The office of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, said that Israel and the United States bore full responsibility for “the terrible massacre,” but suggested that Hamas militants had provided Israel with a pretext to attack Palestinian civilians by embedding among them. Hamas responded by accusing Abbas’ office of “exempting” Israel from responsibility for its actions.
U.S. officials have suggested that the Palestinian Authority should play a central role in governing a postwar Gaza, which would most likely require approval from Hamas. And a growing number of Palestinians have argued that Fatah and Hamas need to find common ground to advance the reconstruction of Gaza when the war ends, though many are pessimistic about the prospect.
“There’s still a major divide between Hamas and Fatah, but there’s an absolute necessity that they achieve a national consensus for the administration of Gaza,” said Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center, a Palestinian political research group. “In the absence of that, there will be a huge tragedy.”