Gaza ceasefire 'closer than ever' as sides work on final details

Negotiators were meeting in Qatar on Tuesday hoping to finalise a plan to end the war in Gaza, after US President Joe Biden indicated a ceasefire and hostage release deal was close, after 15 months of conflict that upended the Middle East.

More than five hours after talks began there was still no word on an outcome.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a news conference that the talks on the final details were underway and this was the closest point to a deal reached over the past months.

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."

Militant group Islamic Jihad, which is separate from Hamas and also holds hostages 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.

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, head 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 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.

Israel would recover hostages from among around 100 who still remain in captivity from the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that precipitated the war. In return it would free Palestinian detainees.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ball was in the court of Hamas. He is due to present a post-war plan for Gaza on Tuesday, Axios reported.

An Israeli official said the deal's first stage would see the release of 33 hostages, including children, women including some female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick. Israel would gradually and partially withdraw some of its forces.

A Palestinian source said Israel would free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners during the first phase, which would last 60 days.

FIGHTING STILL RAGES

Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed across its borders on Oct.7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, shattering the myth that the country is invincible.

Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Only one ceasefire has been held so far, lasting for a single week in Nov. 2023, during which around half of the hostages, including most women, children and foreign labourers, were freed in return for Palestinian detainees.

Both sides have been committed in principle for months to the prospect of a ceasefire accompanied by a swap of remaining hostages for detainees. But all previous talks foundered over the steps that would follow, with Hamas rejecting any deal that stopped short of bringing a permanent end to the war, while Israel said it would not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.

Fighting has meanwhile raged on, focused in recent months on Gaza's northern edge where Israel says 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 in the past day, including one Gazan journalist. One of those attacks killed 10 people in a house in Khan Younis south of the enclave. Another killed nine people in a tent encampment in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

The Israeli military made no immediate comment.

Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement. Trump has said there would be "hell to pay" unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while Biden has also called for a final push for a deal before he leaves.

Blinken said negotiators wanted to make sure Trump would continue to back any deal on the table, which made the presence of Trump's Middle East envoy Witkoff alongside Biden administration officials "critical".