Efforts to end the two-year Gaza war gained fresh momentum on Wednesday as top United States envoys and regional mediators gathered in Egypt for a new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas under President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Trump’s senior advisers, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, arrived in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh alongside Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani and Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin. The talks, now in their third day, are being viewed as a critical step toward achieving a long-term ceasefire.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group had shown “necessary positivity” in the negotiations and had submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released in exchange for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Israeli officials, meanwhile, told local media they were “cautiously optimistic” about the discussions.

President Trump also struck an upbeat tone, saying, “There’s a real chance that we could do something.”

Focus On Ceasefire And Withdrawal

Negotiations so far have centered on mechanisms for ending hostilities, a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Mediators hope the presence of high-level negotiators from Washington, Doha, Ankara, and Cairo will push both sides toward an agreement.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi described the US delegation’s arrival as “very encouraging,” noting that they came with “a strong message and mandate from President Trump to end the war in this round of talks.”

Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is leading the Israeli delegation, while representatives of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are participating alongside Hamas. Their involvement is seen as an effort by Hamas to align all Palestinian factions behind any deal.

Hostage-Prisoner Exchange Proposal

According to a senior Hamas official, the group’s proposed list of prisoners includes prominent figures such as Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat. Barghouti, often regarded as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is serving multiple life sentences for orchestrating attacks during the Second Intifada. Saadat, the PFLP leader, is serving 30 years for leading an outlawed group and involvement in the 2001 assassination of an Israeli minister.

While Hamas insists it has approached the talks responsibly, sources close to the negotiations say significant differences persist. Chief among them are disagreements over the scope and timing of Israeli troop withdrawals, and how hostage releases should align with the ceasefire phases.

Trump’s 20-Point Peace Framework

A Palestinian official familiar with the talksp said disputes had emerged over several of the 20 points in Trump’s plan. Hamas reportedly wants Israel to withdraw from major Gazan cities first, while Israel prefers to follow a map provided by the White House that leaves about 55% of Gaza under Israeli control in the initial phase.

The Trump proposal calls for all hostages to be freed within 72 hours and for further Israeli withdrawals to be tied to the disarmament of Hamas.

Regional Involvement And Reactions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revealed that Trump had asked him to help persuade Hamas to accept the peace plan. Speaking to members of his ruling AK Party, Erdoğan stressed that pressure must also be applied to Israel, calling its military actions in Gaza “the greatest obstacle to peace.”

On the ground, reports suggest Israel has scaled back its bombardment of Gaza City in recent days following Trump’s appeal last week to “stop the bombing.”

Humanitarian Toll

According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israeli strikes have killed more than 67,000 people since the war began on 7 October 2023, including over 20,000 children. The United Nations considers the ministry’s figures generally reliable, though Israel disputes them. The ministry also reports that at least 460 people have died from malnutrition, with conditions worsening since the UN declared a famine in Gaza City in August.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, in a statement marking the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack that triggered the conflict, reaffirmed Israel’s war objectives: “We will continue to act to achieve all our goals, the return of all hostages, the destruction of Hamas’s regime, and ensuring Gaza can no longer threaten Israel.”

Despite deep divisions, mediators expressed hope that this week’s talks could yield the first real breakthrough toward ending one of the region’s most devastating conflicts in decades.

Flight travel disruptions continued for a second consecutive day across the United States as air traffic control staffing shortages worsened during the ongoing government shutdown, now in its seventh day, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on Tuesday.

More than 3,000 flights have been delayed nationwide, according to flight-tracking data, with major hubs including Houston, Nashville, Dallas, Chicago O’Hare, and Newark among the hardest hit.

At Chicago O’Hare, the FAA has reduced the number of arriving flights per hour due to staffing constraints, resulting in average delays of about 41 minutes. Newark airport also reported delays of up to 30 minutes for arriving flights, while Atlanta’s Air Route Traffic Control Center and Nashville’s control tower are struggling with critical manpower shortages. The FAA added that Nashville operations would be scaled down later in the day, with approach control duties temporarily transferred to Memphis Center.

Officials warned that Washington Reagan National Airport could experience new slowdowns as staffing levels remain low.

As frustrations mount, political leaders have exchanged blame over the disruption. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of being responsible for the situation, while California Governor Gavin Newsom argued that President Donald Trump’s administration should be held accountable.

The aviation sector is also contending with severe weather conditions that have compounded the delays.

Approximately 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are still required to report to work during the shutdown but have not been paid. They are expected to receive partial compensation on October 14 for work completed before the shutdown began.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disclosed that absenteeism among controllers has slightly increased, with staffing levels cut by as much as 50% in some areas since the shutdown’s onset.
“If we don’t have controllers, we’re going to make sure the airspace is safe. So what we do is we’ll slow traffic,” Duffy said on Fox News’ Fox and Friends.

Data from FlightAware showed that over 3,000 U.S. flights had been delayed as of Tuesday, including 225 in Nashville—representing 20% of its scheduled departures—and more than 570 at Chicago O’Hare, exceeding 20% of its operations. Southwest Airlines reportedly delayed over 500 flights, while American Airlines experienced around 400 delays.

The U.S. has grappled with chronic air traffic control shortages for more than a decade, and even before the current shutdown, many controllers were working six-day weeks and mandatory overtime. The FAA remains short by roughly 3,500 controllers compared to its staffing targets.

During the last major shutdown in 2019, unpaid controllers and TSA staff began calling in sick as missed paychecks piled up, forcing flight slowdowns and long security lines at major airports. The growing disruption then helped push Congress to end the standoff, an outcome aviation observers warn could repeat if the current shutdown drags on.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the imprisonment of Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, both Democrats, as his administration finalized plans to send military troops into Chicago, America’s third-largest city.

Neither official has been accused of any crime, but both have been outspoken critics of Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement and his decision to deploy National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities.

The president’s call comes just as another of his long-standing political rivals, former FBI Director James Comey, was set to appear in court on criminal charges that many legal analysts have described as weak. While Trump has repeatedly called for the jailing of opponents since 2015, Comey is the first to face prosecution.

On his social media platform, Trump wrote, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” accusing both leaders of obstructing federal immigration efforts.

Earlier in the week, Mayor Johnson signed an executive order establishing an “ICE Free Zone,” which restricts federal immigration officers from operating on city property. Requests for comment from Johnson and Pritzker were not immediately answered.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Texas National Guard members have gathered at a military base near Chicago in preparation for deployment, despite objections from state and local officials. Trump has hinted at plans to send troops to additional cities, saying last week that the deployments could serve as “training grounds” for the armed forces.

The president has already ordered troop deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, following earlier operations in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. In each instance, he has defied strong pushback from Democratic governors and mayors, who argue that claims of widespread crime and chaos are overstated.

“My goal is very simple. STOP CRIME IN AMERICA!” Trump posted on his platform.

Data from law enforcement agencies show that violent crime has been declining in most U.S. cities since its spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. National Guard troops have so far been primarily used to secure federal facilities rather than engage in street-level law enforcement.

Officials in Chicago and Portland reported that protests against Trump’s immigration policies have remained mostly peaceful and small in scale, contrary to depictions from federal officials.

“What we have going on right now is literally domestic terrorism in Chicago,” said Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, during an appearance on Fox News.

Governor Pritzker has accused Trump of intentionally provoking unrest to justify greater militarization. The Illinois state government has filed a lawsuit to block the deployment, though a federal judge on Monday allowed it to move forward for now. A separate court has halted the planned deployment to Portland.

Trump has also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used law that allows a president to bypass state and court restrictions on military deployment, a measure last used during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.