Hopes Gaza ceasefire deal in final stages as mediators meet in Qatar
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First phase of agreement likely to involve release of 33 Israeli hostages and up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Mediators are meeting in Doha on Tuesday amid high hopes that Gaza ceasefire negotiations are in their final stages after claims of a breakthrough in overnight talks.
Israeli media and reports from the Qatari capital said the agreement would involve an initial release of 33 Israeli hostages, including children, women, elderly people and the sick, and up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, alongside a partial Israeli troop withdrawal in a first phase lasting 60 days.
After 16 days, talks would begin on a second phase of the agreement which would involve the release of other survivors among the 61 remaining hostages, including military-age men, and the bodies of those who have died. The Israeli military withdrawal would be completed in the course of this second stage.
Envoys representing the Biden White House and the incoming Trump administration are taking part in what was billed as a “final round” of talks, meeting delegates from Israel, Egypt and Qatar. Optimism over the negotiations has been tempered by past experience after earlier apparent breakthroughs ultimately failed to end the 15-month war in the face of opposition from the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, or obstruction from Hamas inside Gaza. The militant group is being led by Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October attacks who was killed by Israel last October after a year-long manhunt.
