Israel and Hamas are negotiating the final details of a ceasefire for Gaza and will meet this Tuesday in Qatar to try to close the agreement after 15 months of punishment war in which Israel has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in the Strip.
“We are in advanced stages. There is progress in all components of the agreement,” a Hamas source assured the EFE agency. For its part, the US has confirmed that the agreement is very close and could be closed this week. “The agreement is closer than ever (…) a decisive round of talks will be held on Tuesday morning in Doha, to put the final touches on the remaining details,” he added.
Hamas has published a statement confirming that the talks have reached their final phase. For their part, two sources participating in the negotiations They have informed the AP agency that Hamas has accepted the proposal.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman, David Mencer, stated this Tuesday that “Israel wants this agreement to succeed and is willing to pay a high price to get its people back.”
The spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry told the media this Tuesday that this is the moment in which they have been closest to the agreement in recent months. While talks continue, Israeli bombings continue killing people in Gaza.
According to The Wall Street Journal reports Citing Arab and Israeli sources close to the negotiations, both sides have accepted the main conditions of the agreement and are working on parts of the language. Both warn that the talks can still go off the rails, as has happened on other occasions.
According to current negotiations, Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the ceasefire agreement, after which it would begin to withdraw its forces from populated areas of the Strip, a Palestinian source has informed the BBC.
The same source maintains that Hamas would release four more hostages the following week and Israel would allow displaced Palestinians to return on foot to northern Gaza. In total, during the first phase, which would last 42 days, 33 hostages would be released, all of them alive, as confirmed by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.
However, the Israeli military would remain in the Philadelphia corridor and maintain an 800-meter unpopulated zone along the northern and eastern borders with Israel. This first phase would last 42 days. The agreement also provides for the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and Hamas would free 34 hostages. According to the same source, negotiations for the second and third phases would begin later.
In this first phase, “Israel does not commit to ending the war (…) and after the first sixteen days of the 42, the parties will begin negotiations on the second phase, in which Israel demands the release of the rest of the hostages,” his source explains to EFE.
Meanwhile, the Israeli far right press to try to stop any advance. The Minister of National Security, the ultra Itamar Ben-Gvir, has threatened to resign and has encouraged the other far-right minister, Bezalel Smotrich, to do the same, which would endanger Netanyahu’s government.
“Last year we managed, thanks to our political power, to prevent this agreement from being carried out,” said Ben-Gvir, despite the fact that Israel has always blamed Hamas for not reaching the ceasefire. “Since then, however, other parties that support the agreement have joined the Government, and we are no longer the decisive factor.”
According to Axio has reportedCiting three government sources, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will present this Tuesday his proposed plan to rebuild and govern Gaza after the war.
President-elect Donald Trump also said Monday that a ceasefire agreement is “very close.” “They are finishing it maybe by the end of this week.” Among the American negotiators is Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy.
“We especially appreciate the role of both the Biden Administration and the incoming Trump Administration in the talks over the past two weeks. They have participated fully in the conversations. They have worked together here in Doha and further afield in the region to ensure that an agreement is reached,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
#Closer #negotiators #finalize #ceasefire #Gaza #week #Biden #leaves
