Two Hamas officials confirmed on Tuesday that the group had accepted a document peace plan for the Gaza Strip and the transfer of dozens of hostages. Mediator Qatar claimed that the talks were at the” closest place” but to achieving a deal.
An Iranian standard and a Hamas national confirmed the authenticity of the proposed agreement when an Associated Press obtained a version of it. Progress has been made, according to an Israeli standard, but details are still being worked out. The Israeli Cabinet would need to receive the program before it can be finalized.
Under the condition of anonymity, all three leaders spoke about the discussions that took place behind closed doors.
The past year has seen efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to put an end to the 15-month conflict and allow the transfer of numerous victims captured in Hamas ‘ October 7, 2023, attack. The defense believes that at least one-third of the 100 Israelis who are still imprisoned in Gaza are useless.
Despite the fact that the agreements have amidmideast minister, the government is now confident that it will come to an agreement before the US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, stated at a regular briefing on Tuesday that the continuous negotiations are moving and effective, but he would not go into specifics about the contentious discussions.
” Now, we are at the closest point always to having a deal”, he said.
Hamas, however, said in a statement that the continuous discussions had reached their “final period”.
Around 90 % of Gaza’s population, or 2.3 million people, has been displaced by the offensive, which has reduced significant portions of the area to dust and forced hundreds of thousands of people to camp in camp camps along the beach where hunger is pervasive.
Israeli cuts across Gaza immediately and into Tuesday killed at least 18 Palestinians, including two girls and four kids, while Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired two rockets at Israel, setting off alarms and sending individuals racing into homes. No one was wounded by the missiles.
A three-phase deal Based on a platform established by US President Joe Biden and approved by the UN Security Council, the three-phase deal would start with the gradual launch of 33 hostages, including women, children, older adults, and crippled civilians, in exchange for potentially hundreds of Arab women and children imprisoned by Israel.
Among the 33 may be five adult Jewish men, each of whom would be released in trade for 50 Arab prisoners, including 30 convicted extremists who are serving life words. By the end of the first step, all human captives- living or dead- will have been released.
Israeli forces would leave community centers for the first 42 days, Palestinians would be able to begin moving back to their homes in northwestern Gaza, and there would be a wave of humanitarian aid, with about 600 trucks coming in each day.
Information of the second phase must still be reached during the first. The deal does not provide written assurances that the peace will persist until a resolution is reached, and those details are still difficult to resolve. After the first phase is over, Israel has the option of starting a new military strategy.
However, the three mediators verbally promise Hamas that the talks will remain as planned and that they will push for a resolution to employ the second and third phases before the first, according to the Iranian official.
The agreement would permit Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the circle of place along Gaza’s border with Egypt, from which Hamas had first demanded that Israel renounce. However, Israel may withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, a belt that runs through central Gaza and where it had sought a method to search for Palestinians ‘ weapons when they came back from the area’s northeast.
In the second phase, Hamas would transfer the remaining living victims, mainly male men, in exchange for more prisoners and the” full withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, according to the draft agreement. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously pledged to reengage in fighting unless Hamas’s military and governing abilities are eliminated. Hamas has stated that it will not release the hostages without the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal.
It could leave Hamas in charge of the territory unless an alternative government for Gaza is found in those discussions.
In exchange for a three to five-year reconstruction plan to be implemented in Gaza under international supervision, the bodies of the hostages would be returned in a third phase.
Growing pressure ahead of Trump’s inauguration Hamas and Israel have been subject to renewed pressure in the run-up to the president’s inauguration. His Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, recently joined US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators in the Gulf country’s capital, Doha.
Trump claimed late on Monday that a ceasefire was “very close.”
” I understand… there’s been a handshake and they are getting it finished– and maybe by the end of the week”, he told the American cable channel Newsmax.
Hamas claims that Israel repeatedly rejected a proposal from mediators before launching a new military operation right away after accepting it on more than one occasion.
Israel and its close ally the United States have attributed Hamas setbacks.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1, 200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted another 250. During a brief ceasefire in November 2023, about half of those hostages were freed.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 46, 000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.
Two women and their four children, who ranged in age from one month to nine years old, were killed in two strikes in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza city, overnight and into Tuesday. One of the women was pregnant and the baby did not survive, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
According to the European Hospital, another 12 people were killed in two attacks on Khan Younis in the south of the city.
The Israeli military did not respond right away. Israel claims that it only targets militants and accuses them of eluded civilians in displaced people’s shelters and tent camps.
Israel has been the subject of a conflict that has spread across the country after a tense ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants for a year. Israel has also traded direct fire with Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
The Israeli military claimed it made several attempts to intercept a missile that was launched from Yemen early on Tuesday and that it was “probably intercepted.” An earlier missile fired from Yemen was also said to have been intercepted.
Police reported that several homes had been damaged outside of Jerusalem and that a photo of a missile casing had slammed into a roof had been made public.
The Houthis, who captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north in 2014, have launched a series of missile and drone attacks on Israel and have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea. The majority of the ships targeted by the Houthis have no connection to the conflict, despite the Houthis ‘ claim that they are uniting with the Palestinians.
