Hamas, Israel reach final draft of Gaza truce deal after ‘successful’ talks, official says
Mediators gave Israel and Hamas the final draft of an agreement on Monday to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the talks said, after “successful” midnight talks attended by delegations from US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump. Trump.
A document on the ceasefire and the release of the hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides of the Doha talks, which included the heads of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister, the official said.
Steve Witkoff, who will be the US ambassador if Trump returns to the US presidency next week, attended the talks, according to the official. A US source said a delegate from the outgoing Biden administration, Brett McGurk, was there.
“The next 24 hours will be crucial in reaching an agreement,” the official said, describing the draft as the result of the breakthrough achieved in the early hours of Monday.
Israeli radio station Kan, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that the Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had received both documents, and that the Israeli delegation had informed Israeli leaders. Israel, Hamas and Qatar’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials on both sides, while insisting that a final draft has been reached, described progress in the talks, but did not provide details of the draft agreement.
“Discussions on some key issues have made progress and we are working to conclude the rest soon,” a senior Hamas official told Reuters on Monday, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A senior Israeli official said the deal could be closed within days if Hamas responds to the proposal. A Palestinian official close to the talks said the information from Doha was “very promising,” adding: “The gaps are being narrowed and there is a lot of momentum to reach an agreement if everything goes well until the end.”
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been working for more than a year on negotiations to end the war in Gaza, so far without fruit.
In Cairo, an Egyptian security official told Reuters that the draft sent to the two warring sides does not constitute a final agreement but “aims to resolve outstanding issues that have blocked previous talks.”
Trump’s deadline is approaching
Both sides have agreed for months on a ceasefire to free Hamas hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, Hamas has always insisted that this agreement must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is disbanded.
Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20 is now widely seen in the region as the de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there will be “hell to pay” unless Hamas hostages are released before he takes office, while outgoing President Biden is also pushing for a deal before he leaves.
The official said talks continued into the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation to Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pressing Hamas officials to finalize the deal.
Ceasefire talks and a hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas have resumed in Cairo, and sources close to the talks say a deal could be signed in the coming days. Palestinians in southern Gaza say they hope this round of talks will see an end to the war so that life can resume.
The head of Egypt’s intelligence service, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, was also in the Qatari capital as part of the talks, the official said.
Trump’s envoy Witkoff has visited Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and traveled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.
Biden also spoke on the phone with Netanyahu on Sunday, stressing “the urgent need to stop the violence in Gaza and the return of hostages with the help of aid created by the ceasefire agreement,” the White House said.
It was reported that 5 people died in the school shelter strike
Bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday, as Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 people, health officials said. This includes five people who died in an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza City where displaced families are being sheltered.
In a press conference on Sunday, Save the Children raised the alarm about the ongoing attacks on schools in Gaza, where Palestinian families take refuge – attacking five schools by Israel last week.
“Not only [children] missed more than a year of school – classrooms that once provided a safe place to learn, play and develop have become death traps,” said Jeremy Stoner, Middle East regional director at Save the Children.
“A permanent moratorium is woefully overdue – every day without it puts children’s futures at risk.”
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 people, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with most of the enclave destroyed and most of its people displaced.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hard-line nationalist who has opposed previous efforts to reach an agreement, slammed the latest proposals as “self-sacrifice” and “a disaster for Israel’s national security.”
In the past few months, fighting has been particularly intense in the northern outskirts of Gaza, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from consolidating and the Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently remove the enclave.
The spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, Abu Ubaida, said that the fighters of this group attacked Israeli soldiers in the area, killing 10 soldiers and wounding many others in the last 72 hours. Israel confirmed on Saturday that four soldiers were killed.
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