US President Donald Trump has insisted the United States will "do everything possible" to prevent Israel restarting the war in Gaza, in the event Hamas agrees to a peace deal.
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have continued for a second day in the Egyptian seaside city of Sharm El Sheikh, as the second anniversary of Hamas's deadly attacks on October 7, 2023, was marked across Israel.
Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostage during the massacre.
In the two years since, health authorities in Gaza have reported more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the strip.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to Mr Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza, while Hamas expressed in-principle support for the proposal, but demanded further negotiations on key issues.
In a statement, Mr Netanyahu said: "We are in fateful days of decision."
"We will continue to work to achieve all the goals of the war: The return of all the kidnapped, the elimination of the Hamas regime and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he said.
One concern for the militant group, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia, has been that Israel may return to its intense bombardment of Gaza from the air and ground once the remaining Israeli hostages are returned across the border.
There are still 48 captives in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Speaking from Washington DC, Mr Trump attempted to allay those fears when asked what guarantees he would give Arab states on lasting peace.
"Well, the primary guarantee is once this deal happens, if it does happen up here in negotiations right now, we are going to do everything possible," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
"We have a lot of power and we're going to do everything possible to make sure everybody adheres to the deal."
Earlier, Hamas had insisted it would only release all of the remaining hostages if Israel withdrew all of its forces from Gaza immediately after.
The Trump peace plan, as it stands, outlines the release of all captives in the first 72 hours after the deal is agreed.
But it only specifies a phased and partial drawdown of Israeli troops, in line with Mr Netanyahu's insistence that his country's security can only be guaranteed with an ongoing military presence inside the border fence line.
"We came to Sharm El-Sheikh to conduct responsible and serious negotiations to stop the war against our people in the Gaza Strip," Hamas's lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya told Egyptian media.
"We came with the direct goal of ending the war, exchanging prisoners, and releasing Israeli detainees.
"We affirm our readiness to act responsibly to stop the war, but the occupation continues to kill and annihilate."
US officials head to Egypt
Senior White House officials have been dispatched to Egypt to take part in the negotiations, with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly among them.
Reuters news agency has reported Qatar's prime minister will also head to Egypt to join the negotiations from Wednesday local time.
"We are very close to making a deal on the Middle East that will bring peace … after all of these years of millions and millions, tens of millions of people being killed, [here] is a chance to bring peace to the Middle East," Mr Trump said.
In Israel and Gaza, there is a cautious optimism that the talks could be successful this time around, while other negotiations have collapsed.
But, there is also an understanding among the community that it is only the first step towards healing — particularly among the Palestinian community.
"The first step is to end the war on Gaza, to withdraw from Gaza, start rebuilding and to let the people in Gaza and the West Bank to demand the kind of leadership that they want, that they really truly want, but start talks about also peace, Israeli-Palestinian peace," Standing Together co-director Rula Daood told the ABC.
The organisation is made up of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, striving for peace in the region.
"At this time we do have a chance to change and shift everything that's happening in the Middle East, but for that we need a political agenda that is very different from the right wing and the ones that we have," Ms Daood said.
"For Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu], it is in his benefit to continue this war … because it ensures him to have a government, basically — but it kills more people on both sides."
Ms Daood said Mr Trump's intervention of had changed the trajectory of the negotiations.
"I think Trump, his politics are very dangerous because he can wake up one day and decide something and the next day decide something else," she said.
"I am cautious on dreaming that this war might really stop because things have shifted before and they can also shift today.
"I am hopeful … that this time maybe things will really look different, because he [Trump] has been holding the same opinion for three, even four days and it hasn't shifted.
"But again, I really don't know."
