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TALKS ARE TAKING place in Doha to finalise a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Qatar, Egypt and the US have stepped up efforts to broker a truce and enable the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
Speaking yesterday, US President Joe Biden said a deal was “on the brink” of being finalised just six days before the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump.
Officials have expressed mounting optimism that they can conclude an agreement ahead of Trump’s 20 January. The president-elect’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has joined the negotiations in Doha.
Meanwhile, mediators Qatar said this afternoon that discussions were in their “final stages” and that they were hopeful an agreement could be reached “very soon”.
However, the country’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari urged caution, saying that “until there is an announcement… we shouldn’t be over-excited about what’s happening right now”.
The phased deal would be based on a framework laid out by US President Joe Biden in May and endorsed by the UN Security Council.
The Associated Press is reporting that is has obtained a copy of the draft agreement and a Hamas and an Egyptian official confirmed it to be authentic.
The first phase of the deal would last for 42 days and would see Hamas release 33 hostages over a six-week period. This would include women, children, men aged over 50, wounded civilians and the elderly.
According to the Times of Israel, Israel believes that most of the 33 hostages included in the proposed initial release are alive, but that some are dead.
The hostage release would be in exchange for the release of potentially hundreds of Palestinians being detained in Israeli prisons, including women and children.
Two Palestinian sources told AFP that Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in this first phase, while an Israeli government official said “several hundred” will be released.
The first phase of the deal would also see some Palestinians allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza.
A phased withdrawal by Israeli forces from major population centres in Gaza would also take place during the first phase, but Israel would remain in control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the band of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
The first phase would also see a “surge” of humanitarian aid, with some reports of 600 trucks carrying food, relief supplies and fuel being permitted to enter Gaza each day.
Pleas for increased aid have been made consistently in the 15 months since the start of the present conflict as part of efforts to fight disease and famine in the besieged enclave.
Last month, aid group Oxfam said that just 12 trucks were able to distribute food and water in northern Gaza between 6 October and 22 December 2024.
Negotiations for phase two of the ceasefire deal would take place during this initial 42-day period, with the aim of Hamas releasing the remaining hostages in exchange for a large number of prisoners and and the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The third phase of the deal would see the bodies of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas returned. It would also include the establishment of a rebuilding plan for Gaza, and a new structure of government.
According to reports, any ceasefire deal would likely require the approval of the Israeli cabinet.
An Israeli official told the Associated Press that progress has been made in the talks, but that the details are still being finalised.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has threatened to quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government if he agrees to the ceasefire deal.
The far-right politician also called on the country’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to resign along with him if the “horrific deal” is reached, adding that it’s the only way to stop the agreement and “avoid Israel’s surrender to Hamas.”
Two officials involved in the talks have said that Hamas has accepted the draft agreement for a ceasefire.
In a statement this afternoon, the militant group said it had held consultations with leaders of other Palestinian factions “where it informed them of the progress made in the negotiations underway in Doha”.
Hamas said the completion of the agreement “has reached its final stages” and that it “hoped that this round of negotiations will end with a clear and comprehensive agreement”.
While previous ceasefire talks have failed to get off the ground, all indications appear to be that a peace deal has never been closer. But what’s changed?
The key sticking points in talks have been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire and the scale of humanitarian aid for Palestine.
Other points of contention include the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestine and the reopening of border crossings.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a news conference today that obstacles to a deal had been overcome.
“During the past months, there were underlying issues, major issues between the two parties unresolved. These issues were resolved during the talks in the past couple of weeks, and therefore we have reached a point where the major issues that were preventing a deal from happening were addressed,” he said.
Meanwhile, pressure has been mounting on Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been seen as blocking any ceasefire agreement, to agree to a deal. The families of the hostages being held by Hamas have accused him of prolonging the war to avoid accountability.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza since the current conflict began in October 2023. He is also facing corruption charges in Israel.
Another reason for a shift in momentum in the talks appears to be the imminent return of Trump to the White House. Anshel Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist, told BBC News that it was in both Israel and Hamas’s interest to strike a deal before Trump enters office.
“There is a fear [from Hamas] that Trump will somehow give Israel permission to unleash devastation that hasn’t yet been unleashed on Gaza,” he said.
Israel says 1,210 people died as a result of Hamas’s October 7 2o23 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Palestine, figures that the UN considers reliable.
With reporting from © AFP 2025
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