Mediators gave Israel┬аand Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the┬аwar in┬аGaza,┬аan official briefed on the negotiations said,┬аafter a midnight “breakthrough”┬аin talks attended by envoys of both U.S. President Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump.
The text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at┬аtalks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister, the official said.
Steve Witkoff, who will become U.S. envoy when┬аTrump┬аreturns to the U.S. presidency┬аnext week,┬аattended the talks, according to the official. A U.S. source said the outgoing Biden administration’s envoy, Brett McGurk, was also there.
“The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal,” the official said, characterizing the draft as the outcome of a breakthrough reached in the early hours of Monday.
Israel’s Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had both received a draft, and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress at the talks, but provided no details of the draft agreement.
“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” a Hamas official told Reuters on Monday, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the negotiations were being co-ordinated between Biden’s and Trump’s teams.
“There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal,” Saar told a news conference on Monday.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in┬аGaza, so far fruitlessly.
In Cairo, an Egyptian security official told Reuters the draft sent to the two warring sides did not comprise the final agreement but “aims to resolve outstanding issues that had hindered previous negotiations.”
Trump’s deadline approaches
Both sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. However, Hamas has always insisted that the deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from┬аGaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while outgoing President Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.
The official said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalize an agreement.
Talks to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas have restarted in Cairo, and sources close to negotiations say an agreement could be signed in coming days. Palestinians in southern Gaza say they hope this round of talks will see the war ending so life can resume.
The head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency,┬аHassan Mahmoud Rashad, was also in the Qatari capital as part of the talks, the official said.
Trump envoy Witkoff has travelled to 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┬аspoke┬аon Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing “the immediate need for a ceasefire in┬аGaza┬аand return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” the White House said.
Attacks intensify in northern Gaza, killing 50
Bloodshed continued in┬аGaza┬аon Monday, with┬аCBC’s videographer in Gaza saying┬аIsraeli bombardment in northern Gaza intensified,┬аkilling at least 50 people and injuring more than 100 in multiple airstrikes, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.
Separately, in Gaza City, five people were killed in an Israeli strike at a┬аGaza┬аCity school sheltering displaced families.
In a news release Sunday, Save the Children sounded the alarm about ongoing attacks on schools in Gaza, where Palestinian families are sheltering тАФ┬аlogging a total of five attacks on schools by Israel the week before.
“Not only have [children] missed more than a year of school тАФ┬аthe classrooms that once offered a safe space to learn, play and develop have become death traps,” said Jeremy Stoner, Middle East regional director at Save the Children.
“A lasting ceasefire is painfully overdue тАФ┬аeach day without it risks more children’s futures.”
Israel launched its assault in┬аGaza┬аafter Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in┬аGaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline nationalist who has opposed previous attempts to reach a deal, denounced the latest proposals as a “surrender” and a “catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel.”
For the last several months, fighting has been particularly intense along the northern edge of┬аGaza, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate a buffer zone.
Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said the group’s fighters attacked Israeli forces in the area, killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring dozens of others in the past 72 hours. Israel confirmed on Saturday that four soldiers had been killed.
