Ogona Anita
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal for a ceasefire and release of hostages being held in Gaza, following separate meetings with Qatarโs prime minister.
A US official confirmed the deal.
Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days, as mediators โ Qatar, Egypt and the United States โ intensified efforts to cement an agreement.
A source close to the talks said Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, was meeting Hamas negotiators in his office for a final push to seal the deal.
The source, who briefed on the talks later, said the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was reached, following the Qatari PMโs meeting with Hamas negotiators and, separately, Israeli negotiators in his office.
The announcement comes after months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gazaโs history, and days ahead of the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, who immediately hailed the deal before it was officially announced by the White House.
Trump
โWe have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly. Thank you!โ Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Trump had warned Hamas of โhell to payโ if it did not free the remaining captives before he took office, and envoys from both his incoming administration and President Joe Bidenโs outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.
Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage during the attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israelโs retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territoryโs health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Sticking points
Among the sticking points in successive rounds of talks had been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the scale of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.
The UNโs Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, said it will continue providing much-needed aid.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, has opposed any post-war role for the militant group in the territory.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday Israel would ultimately โhave to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformedโ Palestinian Authority, and embrace a โpath toward forming an independent Palestinian stateโ.
He added that the โbest incentiveโ to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace remained the prospect of normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian PM
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa, speaking in Oslo, said the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire showed international pressure on Israel โdoes pay offโ.
The October 7 attack on communities in southern Israel sparked uproar around the world, as did the scale of the suffering in Gaza from the retaliatory war.
World powers and international organisations have for months pushed for a ceasefire, which up until today had remained elusive
