Good morning. Israel and Hamas are back at the negotiating table, hashing out the thorniest issues in the U.S. peace plan – more on that below, along with another high-profile resignation in France and the Blue Jays’ quest for a series sweep. But first:

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Two years ago, Hamas launched its surprise attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Efforts to end the war that followed in Gaza have been limited and fleeting: a week-long ceasefire in late November, 2023, then a two-month truce shattered earlier this year. Negotiations repeatedly snagged over the same fundamental disagreements. Hamas does not want to lay down its weapons. Israel won’t commit to fully removing its forces from the Gaza Strip.

But Donald Trump doesn’t believe the past is prologue; he isn’t much concerned with the past at all. When the U.S. President unveiled his own 20-point peace plan at the White House last week, he promised it would resolve one of the world’s gravest and thorniest conflicts for good. “This is eternity. This is for forever,” Trump said, standing beside a palpably uncomfortable Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East.”

Delegations from Israel and Hamas are now in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh to work on that proposal, as mediators from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt shuttle messages between them to broker an end to the war. There’s reason for optimism here: Both sides have endorsed the plan’s overall principles, including a halt to fighting, the release of hostages and a surge of aid into Gaza, where health officials report more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign. Arab and Western countries alike have backed Trump’s plan, urging the two parties to seize this opportunity for peace.

Still, the proposal – sweeping in scope, but short on specifics – has some pretty major sticking points. Here’s what needs to be hashed out.

The hostage swap. Under the U.S. plan, Hamas would hand over its 48 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are still alive, within 72 hours of the ceasefire, in exchange for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. But that time frame may not be realistic: Israeli and Hamas officials have indicated it would take longer to retrieve the bodies of hostages buried in Gaza. The two sides also haven’t agreed on a list of prisoners to trade.

And while Hamas said on Friday that it was willing to release the hostages, they represent the group’s last bargaining chip. Hamas and other Palestinian factions fear once they’re handed over, Israel may walk away from negotiations. It’s unclear whether Hamas will follow through with the hostage exchange before the rest of the deal is finalized.

Hamas’s surrender. The proposal calls for the group to completely disarm and play no future role in Gaza, two key Israeli demands that Hamas has long refused and didn’t explicitly address in its statement on Friday. Trump wants Gaza to be governed by a transitional body of Palestinian technocrats, supervised by an international “Board of Peace” that he would chair himself. Power would ultimately shift to a reformed Palestinian Authority, opening the door to an eventual Palestinian state.

But Netanyahu has repeatedly said that the PA can play no role in governing Gaza and that Palestinian statehood is a non-starter. In his recent address at the United Nations, he lambasted countries such as Canada, Britain and France for their recognition of Palestine, calling them all “weak-kneed leaders who appease evil.”

Israel’s withdrawal. Both the White House and Israel have been vague about when exactly Israeli troops would begin to pull out of Gaza and how much land they’d be compelled to give up. Trump’s plan lays out three stages of military withdrawal based on unspecified “standards, milestones and timeframes,” culminating in a buffer zone that would stay in place “until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.” It’s not clear who makes that determination. Over the weekend, Netanyahu said that Israel’s defence forces would remain “deep inside the strip.”

Negotiators in Egypt will need to somehow reconcile these existential issues, and Trump would very much like them to do it soon. “I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,” he posted on social media, insisting that the first phase of a deal should be completed this week. Incidentally, the Nobel committee hands out its peace prize on Friday.

Red Sox legend David Ortiz has seen enough: He’s certain the Blue Jays are going to move on to the American League Championship Series, while the Yankees will have to slink off to Cancun. We’ll see if he’s right (please be right) when Game 3 gets under way at 8:08 ET tonight.

At home: Ottawa will shift to tabling its budgets in the fall instead of the spring to help provinces and cities plan for construction season.