DOHA, Jan 15: Negotiators were meeting in Qatar yesterday hoping to finalise details of a plan to end the offensive in Gaza, after US President Joe Biden indicated a ceasefire and hostage release deal was imminent.
Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a news conference that talks on the final details were underway and this was the closest point to a deal reached over the past months.
"We do believe that we are at the final stages... certainly we are hopeful that this would lead very soon to an agreement," Ansari said.
Hamas said the talks had reached the final steps and that it hoped this round of negotiations would lead to a deal. A Palestinian source close to the talks told Reuters he expected the deal to be finalised by yesterday if "all goes well".
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".
The official also said the deal's first stage would include the release of 33 hostages, including children, women, female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick and a gradual, partial withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Meanwhile, on the ground, violence continued yesterday, with Palestinian medics reporting at least 27 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Qatari mediators had given Israel and Hamas a final draft of a text for a ceasefire and release of hostages agreement on Monday, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after what he described as a midnight breakthrough in talks in Doha.
US President-elect Donald Trump's incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Biden's envoy Brett McGurk have both attended the talks hosted by Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Israel is represented by David Barnea, director of spy service Mossad, and Ronen Bar, director of the Shin Bet internal security agency.
"The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started," Biden said on Monday.
If successful, the phased ceasefire - capping over a year of start-and-stop talks - could halt fighting that has left Gaza in ruins, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, made most of Gaza's population homeless and is still killing dozens a day. —REUTERS
