ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Delegations from Israel, the U.S. and Hamas are headed to a seaside city in Egypt to begin talks on Monday that could end Israel's war in Gaza. But first, the delegations need to iron out the details of returning all remaining hostages held in Gaza and releasing some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. And in Egypt, the delegations will need to address big uncertainties over unresolved issues, like how Gaza would be governed if the war ends. With us is NPR's Emily Feng, who has been following all of this over the weekend. Hi, Emily.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Hey, Andrew.
LIMBONG: So what do we know about where this American proposal to end the war stands?
FENG: So the latest is, last night, President Trump published this map of Gaza on social media showing the initial line that Israel's military said it would agree to withdraw to - it's still inside of Gaza, however - once the hostages are released. And Trump wrote that if Hamas agrees to this initial withdrawal line, then a total ceasefire would begin immediately.
Now today, Shosh Bedrosian, who is the spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, struck a hard tone today. She reiterated the Israeli position that Hamas has to be disarmed as part of this peace deal, and that's not something Hamas has agreed to.
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SHOSH BEDROSIAN: This will be achieved the easy way, or it will be achieved the hard way. But either way, the end result will be achieved.
FENG: So disarmament is one of the thorniest issues that negotiators will have to deal with starting Monday in the city of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. Plus, President Trump has proposed, as part of his plan, this international board chaired by him to govern Gaza. Hamas has said in its response to this proposal it wants a Palestinian body to oversee the enclave.
LIMBONG: Emily, you're in Israel. What's the mood there? I mean, like, this is the closest they've come to getting their hostages back.
FENG: People are cautiously hopeful...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
FENG: ...Because people are tired of the war. More than half of Israelis polled last week by a joint survey through an Israeli newspaper and a research institute, found more than half of people back this American ceasefire proposal. Since October 2023, when the war began, there's been this weekly demonstration in downtown Tel Aviv, and what stuck out to me these last few weeks going to this demonstration is a lot of the speeches and even signs that people are holding are now addressed to U.S. President Trump and not Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu. So last night, when I went to one of these demonstrations, I asked Zvia Agur about this. She has been coming to every one of these protests for nearly two years now, and here's what she said.
ZVIA AGUR: Netanyahu is not our leader. He's our enemy. This is my feeling. When we saw that he acts against our true and just ambitions, then we have to fight him.
FENG: Agur and other protesters told me that they rest their hopes on the U.S., not their own government to strong-arm Israeli leaders into accepting an end to the war even if Israel doesn't get this total victory that Netanyahu had aspired to.
LIMBONG: And in Gaza, more than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in this war. That's according to Gaza's health ministry. And as I understand, even though Israel has curtailed some of its military operations there, they've continued what they call, quote, "defensive actions" in Gaza, right?
FENG: Yes. Strikes continue, and I have been hearing these booms all day coming from the Beit Hanoun area in Gaza's northeast. And for perspective, I'm in Tel Aviv. That's some 40 miles away. NPR's man on the ground in Gaza, Anas Baba, has been recording the sounds of the shelling on the ground. He's been recording sounds of armed drones and airstrikes all throughout the weekend, including a strike on Saturday which killed 18 people. Here's 52-year-old A'id Fuad al-Minawi who told Anas, my colleague, that there's been this intense acceleration and bombing in Gaza after Hamas responded to the ceasefire proposal.
A ID FUAD AL-MINAWI: (Non-English language spoken).
FENG: And Al-Minawi told Anas that he fears this latest proposal is just a trap, that Israel will impose impossible new conditions after they get their hostages and the war could begin all over again.
LIMBONG: That's NPR's Emily Feng in Tel Aviv. Emily, thank you so much.
FENG: Thanks, Andrew. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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