Key mediator Qatar said on Tuesday that talks for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal are in their “final stage”, and expressed hope that an agreement could be reached “very soon”.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States have stepped up efforts to broker a ceasefire to enable the release of hostages taken during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Late Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to a meeting with top security officials to discuss the deal, his office said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier said, “The ball is now in Hamas’s court.” “If Hamas accepts, the deal is ready to be concluded and implemented.”
US President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said in a phone call on Tuesday that both sides needed to show “flexibility” to reach an agreement, according to a statement from Sisi’s office.
Biden said a day earlier that a deal was “on the verge” of being finalized just before the inauguration of his successor Donald Trump.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari said on Tuesday that talks were in their “final stages”.
“Certainly we hope that an agreement will be reached soon,” Ansari said. “Until there is an announcement… we should not get too excited,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said during a visit to Rome that “there is a genuine desire on our part to reach an agreement”.
Hamas’s October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
That day, the militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, 34 of whom are reported dead by the Israeli military.
Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, a figure the United Nations considers credible.
‘Act now’
Relatives of Israeli hostages and war-stricken Palestinians in Gaza were anxiously awaiting the finalization of the agreement.
“Timing is of the essence,” said Gil Dickman, a cousin of former hostage Carmel Gait, whose body was recovered from a Gaza tunnel in September.
“The hostages who are alive will die. The hostages who are dead may be lost,” Dickman told AFP at a rally in Jerusalem. “We must act now.”
Umm Ibrahim Abu Sultan told Khan Yunis in southern Gaza that she had “lost everything” in the war.
“I am anxiously waiting for the ceasefire. I will cry for days,” said the mother of five.
Israeli media and sources close to the talks said 33 Israeli hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal, while two Palestinian sources close to Hamas told AFP that in return Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli media also reported on Tuesday that under the proposed agreement, Israel would be allowed to maintain a buffer zone inside Gaza during the implementation of the first phase.
Hamas said it hoped for a “clear and comprehensive agreement”, adding that it had informed other Palestinian factions about the “progress made”.
Successive rounds of talks last year failed to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history.
On Tuesday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right member of Netanyahu’s government, said he opposed what he called a “disastrous deal.”
A day earlier, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also a far-right cabinet member, had warned that he would also oppose any agreement to stop the war.
However, Saar said on Tuesday that he believed “if we get this hostage deal done we will have a majority in this government that will support the deal”.
‘Hard and bloody’
The sticking points in the talks have been disagreements over the durability of any ceasefire, the scale of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Netanyahu has strongly rejected a complete withdrawal from Gaza and opposes any Palestinian rule over the territory.
But Blinken said Tuesday that Israel must ultimately accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of “a reformed” Palestinian Authority, and pursue “a path toward creating an independent Palestinian state.”
Even as intensive diplomatic efforts toward a ceasefire agreement continued, Israeli forces destroyed targets across Gaza.
Gaza’s civil protection agency said at least 18 people were killed across the territory in overnight airstrikes and shelling.
“Last night was harsh and bloody,” said spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.
The Israeli military told AFP it had “launched several strikes against Hamas militants”.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said on Tuesday that six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jenin refugee camp, after the Israeli military confirmed it had struck the area.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)