Netanyahu, Hamas Chief Indicate Deal on Gaza Truce and Hostages Is Close

The leader of Hamas said on Tuesday that a truce agreement with Israel was close, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for good news soon about hostages, the strongest signals so far of a deal to pause fighting and free captives.

Hamas officials were “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.

Netanyahu said: “We are making progress. I don’t think it’s worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon,” according to remarks released by the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Netanyahu would convene his war cabinet from 1600 GMT “in light of developments in the matter of the release of our hostages,” his office said, followed by meetings of his wider security cabinet and the full cabinet.

A source briefed on the negotiations told Reuters the long-awaited agreement, which would see the first truce of the war and the first mass release of those held by both sides, was in its “final stages” and “closer than it has ever been.”

That was echoed by a US official who said it was the “closest we’ve been” to a hostage deal.

The deal, as described by the first source, envisages the release of around 50 civilian hostages by Hamas and of female and minor-aged Palestinian detainees from Israeli custody, as well as a multi-day pause in fighting.

A Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were centered on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza, and details of the exchange of captives. Both sides would free women and children, and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official, Issat el Reshiq.

Israel‘s Channel 12 and Channel 13 TV stations both quoted unidentified officials as saying terms of a deal could be reached “within hours.”

Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct. 7 rampage into Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the conflict, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also separately met Qatari authorities.

The ICRC said it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages, but as a neutral intermediary it was ready “to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to.”

Talk of an imminent hostage deal has swirled for days.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he hoped for an agreement “in the coming days,” while Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that the remaining sticking points were “very minor.” US President Joe Biden and other US officials said on Monday a deal was near.

The Hamas raid on Oct. 7, the deadliest day in Israel‘s 75-year-old history, prompted Israel to invade Gaza to annihilate the terrorist group that has ruled there since 2007.

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