Gaza ceasefire deal being finalised, Palestinian official tells BBC

the terms of a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages are being finalised, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told the BBC.

It comes as US President Joe Biden said a deal was “on the brink” of coming to fruition, and that his administration was working urgently on the matter.

An Israeli official also told news agency Reuters that negotiations were in “advanced stages”, with a deal possible in “hours, days or more”.

US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, and with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar – who is mediating the negotiations – on Monday.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden was also due to speak with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

Sullivan said a truce and hostage deal could be done “this week”.

The latest developments come as Netanyahu faces fierce opposition to a potential deal from within his governing coalition. Ten right-wing members, including some from Netanyahu’s own Likud party, have sent him a letter opposing a truce.

The Palestinian official told the BBC that Hamas and Israeli officials were conducting indirect talks in the same building on Monday.

Revealing some potential details of the agreement, the official stated that “the detailed technical discussions took considerable time”.

Both sides agreed that Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the agreement, after which Israel would begin withdrawing the troops from populated areas.

Seven days later, Hamas would release four additional hostages, and Israel would allow displaced people in the southern to return to the north, but only on foot via the coastal road.

Cars, animal-drawn carts, and trucks would be permitted to cross through a passage adjacent to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team.

The agreement includes provisions for Israeli forces to remain in the Philadelphi corridor and maintain an 800-meter buffer zone along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase, which will last 42 days.

Israel has also agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including approximately 190 who have been serving sentences of 15 years or more. In exchange, Hamas will release 34 hostages.

Negotiations for the second and third phases of the agreement would begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Monday killed more than 50 people.

“They bombed schools, homes and even gatherings of people,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The Israeli military said it was looking into these reports. Separately, it said five soldiers were killed on Monday in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.

Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 46,500 people have been killed during the war.

Israel says 94 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead, as well as another four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead.