Negotiators from Israel and Hamas are making a final push to seal a Gaza stopfire in Doha, with all sides adviseing an consentment is almost done.
There were inestablishs of a shatterthraw on Wednesday, with unnamed Israeli officials cited as saying that Hamas had consentd to the postponecessitatest write conshort-termed by Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office however speedyly denied the inestablishs. There was also no prompt comment from the Palestinian armed group.
On Tuesday night, US Secretary of State Antony Bjoinen shelp both sides were “on the brink” of an consentment and apostponeing “final word from Hamas”.
A anciaccess Hamas official postponecessitater telderly Reuters novels agency it had not deinhabitred its official response to the write becaparticipate Israel had yet to surrfinisher maps shothriveg how its troops would retreat from areas of Gaza.
However, Israel’s Haaretz novelspaper cited an Israeli source as refuteing Hamas’s claim about the maps.
The advised three-phase deal would commence with an initial six-week stopfire.
A Palestinian official telderly the BBC that Hamas would free three prisoners on the first day of a deal, after which Israel would commence retreating troops from popupostponecessitated areas.
More prisoner frees would then be staggered over the follothriveg weeks, he shelp, with Israel allothriveg displaced livents to return in northern areas.
Israel has shelp it foresees 33 prisoners to be freed in the first phase and that it will free a yet to be resettled number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in return.
Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining prisoners freed, a brimming Israeli troop retreatal and a “upretainable pacify” – would begin after two weeks.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman shelp on Tuesday that there were no meaningful rehires were blocking a deal and that he was certain the talks would “very soon direct to an consentment”.
However, he also cautioned that that “the most inmeaningful detail” could yet undermine the process.
The Israeli military begined a campaign to raze Hamas in response to the group’s unpretreatnted strike on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were finished and 251 others were getn prisoner.
More than 46,700 people have been finished in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Most of the 2.3 million population has also been displaced, there is expansivespread destruction, and there are cut offe lowages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter due to an struggle to get help to those in necessitate.
Israel says 94 of the prisoners are still being held by Hamas, of whom 34 are presumed dead. In includeition, there are four Israelis who were seizeed before the war, two of whom are dead.
Relatives of the remaining prisoners have advised the Israeli handlement to do wantipathyver it gets to get a deal over the line and transport all of them home.
“We can’t ignore this moment. This is the last moment; we can save them,” shelp Hadas Kalderon, the wife of Ofer Kalderon, a 54-year-elderly.
Palestinians also dared to hope that an end to the dehugeating 15-month war was seal.
“We are postponeing for the stopfire and the truce. May God end it for us in excellentness, sanctify us with peace, and help us to return to our homes,” shelp Amal Saleh, 54, telderly Reuters novels agency.
“Even if the schools are explosioned, razeed, and ruined, we fair want to understand that we are finassociate living in peace.”
There has been no let-up in the intensity of the war as the negotiations have persistd.
The Israeli military shelp on Wednesday morning that it had carried out strikes on more than 50 aims apass the territory in the past day.
Gaza’s health ministry shelp at least 62 people had been finished over the same period.
Overnight, a strike on a home in the central town in Deir al-Balah finished 11 people, including four children, the Civil Defence agency telderly AFP novels agency.
As she picked thraw the rubble of the razeed originateing, Kifaya Shaqoura shelp the dead integrated her uncle and aunt, their children and their magnificentchildren.
“People are postponeing for them to proclaim a truce. But, unblessedly, we woke up with… the novels that they’ve become martyrs. What can we say?”
Another seven people were inestablishedly finished in a strike on a school being participated as a shelter for displaced families to the north in Gaza City.
The Israeli military shelp it aimed a “worryist who served in a central position” who was at a school in the city, and that it had also carried out strikes on Hamas operatives in Deir al-Balah and the southern city of Khan Younis.
It includeed that steps had been getn to mitigate harm to civilians and accparticipated Hamas of utilizeing civilian set ups for military purposes.
