The US is directly talking to Hamas for the first time. So what does the Palestinian militant group want?

Trump’s government is breaking with its longstanding policy of not talking with groups it deems to be terrorist organizations.

For most of the past 17 months, the idea of a political settlement to the war in Gaza, much less the Israel-Palestinian conflict, has appeared far from reality – eclipsed by a devastating military campaign that has killed tens of thousands, and black and white rhetoric. Hamas members are “sick and twisted,” in the words of US President Donald Trump. The only option, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged, is to “eliminate” the militant group – his oft-vaunted “total victory.” And yet on Wednesday it emerged that the US president may be willing to settle for something far more practical: His government is breaking with its longstanding policy of not talking with groups it deems to be terrorist organizations. “The special envoy who’s engaged in those negotiations does have the authority to talk to anyone,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters Wednesday. “These are ongoing talks and discussions.” Beyond Trump’s rhetoric of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and taking over the enclave, it appears as though the US government wants to hear what Hamas might want in exchange for the release of 59 hostages it still holds. Only one American still believed to be alive, Edan Alexander, remains in Gaza. The group also holds four dead Americans. Previous talks have all been held through the intermediaries of Qatar and Egypt.