DOHA: Negotiators met in Qatar on Tuesday hoping to hammer out final details of a ceasefire in Gaza, with mediators and the warring sides all describing a deal as closer than ever.
More than six hours after talks began, but there was still no official word on an outcome.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a news conference that talks on the final details were underway after both sides were presented with a text.
US President Joe Biden, whose administration has been taking part alongside an envoy of president-elect Donald Trump, said a deal was close.
Under the proposal, Israel will receive around 100 prisoners, or their bodies, in return for releasing 1,000 Palestinian prisoners
Hamas said the talks had reached the final steps and that it hoped this round of negotiations would lead to a deal after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
An Israeli official said talks had reached a critical phase although some details needed to be hammered out.
“We are close, we are not there yet.”
Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, which is separate from Hamas and also holds Israeli prisoners in Gaza, said it was sending a senior delegation that would arrive in Doha on Tuesday night to take part in final arrangements for a ceasefire deal.
Biden said on Monday the deal would free Israeli prisoners, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow the US to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war.
If successful, the phased ceasefire — capping over a year of start-and-stop talks — could halt fighting that decimated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, made most of the enclave’s population homeless and is still killing dozens a day.
That in turn could ease tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has fuelled conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran.
Under the deal Israel would recover around 100 prisoners or their bodies from among those taken into custody by Hamas on Oct 7, 2023, and in return Israel would free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in the first phase.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was up to Hamas to accept a deal that was already set for implementation.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israeli strikes continue
Fighting has meanwhile raged on, focused on Gaza’s northern edge where Israel claims its forces are trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians say the Israelis are trying to permanently depopulate a buffer zone. Nightly Israeli strikes have continued across the enclave.
Gaza health officials said on Tuesday Israeli strikes killed at least 27 Palestinians on Monday, including one Gaza journalist.
One of those attacks killed 10 people in a house in Khan Younis south of the enclave. Another strike killed nine Palestinians in a tent encampment in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.
Trump’s Jan 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement.
