Negotiations for a hostage release agreement and a truce in Gaza are in their “final stages,” according to Qatar, a major mediator, who expressed optimism that an agreement may be achieved very soon.
Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have stepped up their attempts to mediate a truce in order to facilitate the release of prisoners captured during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 onslaught on Israel.
“The ball is now in Hamas’s court,” stated US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “If Hamas accepts, the deal is ready to be concluded and implemented.”
U.S President Joe Biden had said the day before that a deal was “on the brink” of being finalised, just ahead of the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump.
Qatar foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari also stated that the negotiations were in their “final stages”.
Hamas’s October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to official reports.
On that day, militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
An Israeli government official said that “several hundred terrorists will be released” as part of the first phase of the deal.
Israeli media also reported Tuesday that under the proposed deal, 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 it had held consultations with other Palestinian factions and informed them of the “progress made”.
Successive rounds of negotiations have failed to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned on Monday he would oppose any deal that stopped the war, calling the deal on the table “a catastrophe for Israel’s national security”.
Israelis, particularly families of hostages held in Gaza, have long called on the government to reach an accord that would bring their loved ones home.
Disagreements over the duration of any ceasefire and the volume of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian area have been major stumbling blocks in negotiations.
Other grounds of dispute are the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territory, and the reopening of border crossings.
Netanyahu has categorically refused to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza and opposes any Palestinian control over the territory.
Blinken stated on Tuesday that Israel will eventually “have to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed” Palestinian Authority, as well as “embrace a time-bound, conditions-based path toward forming an independent Palestinian state.”
Even as diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire continued, Israeli forces pummelled locations throughout Gaza.
According to the territory’s civil defence service, night-time air strikes and shelling killed at least 18 people in Gaza City in the north, Deir el-Balah in the centre, and Khan Younis in the south.
