DOHA: The warring parties and mediators described a settlement as closer than ever when they convened in Qatar on Tuesday in an attempt to finalize the terms of a truce in Gaza.
There was still no official word on the outcome more than six hours after the meetings started.
Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, informed a news conference that after both parties received a text, negotiations were in progress on the last details.
A agreement is close, according to US President Joe Biden, whose administration has been participating alongside a representative of President-elect Donald Trump.
Hamas stated that the negotiations were nearing their conclusion and expressed the optimism that a solution would be achieved following mediation by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt.
Although certain specifics needed to be worked out, an Israeli official stated that the talks had reached a crucial stage.
“We are not there yet, but we are close.”
Separate from Hamas, the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad, which also detains Israeli detainees in Gaza, announced that a high-level team would go to Doha on Tuesday evening to participate in the last-minute negotiations for a ceasefire agreement.
On Monday, Biden declared that the agreement will release Israeli detainees, stop the fighting, give Israel security, and enable the United States to greatly increase humanitarian help to the Palestinians who have suffered greatly during this conflict.
The phased ceasefire, which would end more than a year of sporadic negotiations, might put an end to the fighting that destroyed Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, left the majority of the enclave’s population homeless, and continues to kill dozens of people every day.
As a result, tensions in the larger Middle East may decrease. The war has heightened tensions in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq and stoked fears of a full-scale warfare between Israel and Iran.
Under the agreement, Israel would release 1,000 Palestinian detainees in the first phase in exchange for recovering some 100 prisoners or their remains from among those detained by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Hamas must agree to a settlement that is already in place.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli soldiers have killed almost 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
Israeli attacks are still ongoing.
Meanwhile, fighting has continued, concentrating on the northern border of Gaza, where Palestinians believe Israeli forces are attempting to permanently depopulate a buffer zone while Israel says its forces are attempting to stop Hamas from regrouping. Israeli strikes have persisted throughout the enclave at night.
Israeli attacks killed at least 27 Palestinians on Monday, including one Gaza journalist, according to Gaza health officials on Tuesday.
Ten persons were killed in one of those attacks in a house south of the enclave in Khan Younis. Nine Palestinians were murdered in a tent camp in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah by another hit.
Many now consider Trump’s inauguration on January 20 to be the de facto deadline for a ceasefire deal.