The Japan Times - Hamas approves Gaza truce deal: Palestinian sources close to talks

After months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza's history, negotiators were making a final push in Qatar to seal a ceasefire.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari had said on Tuesday that negotiations were in their "final stages", and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with top security officials to discuss the deal late that night, his office said.

Two Palestinian sources close to the talks told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad had approved the draft agreement.

"The resistance factions reached an agreement among themselves and informed the mediators of their approval of the (prisoner-hostage) exchange deal and ceasefire," one source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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 AFP tally of 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.

Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days, as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to seal a deal and enable the release of the hostages.

With just days to go before Donald Trump's inauguration as president of the United States, outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said Tuesday that a deal was "ready to be concluded and implemented".

And Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said there was a "true willingness from our side to reach an agreement".

- 'Act now' -

Relatives of Israeli hostages and war-weary Palestinians in Gaza were anxious for the deal to be finalised.

"Time is of the essence," said Gil Dickmann, cousin of former hostage Carmel Gat whose body was recovered in September.

"Hostages who are alive will end up dead. Hostages who are dead might be lost," Dickmann told AFP. "We have to act now."

Umm Ibrahim Abu Sultan, displaced from Gaza City to Khan Yunis in the south, said that she had "lost everything" in the war.

"I am anxiously awaiting the truce," said the mother of five.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the first phase of a deal would see 33 Israeli hostages freed, while two Palestinian sources close to Hamas told AFP that Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

A source close to Hamas said that the initial hostage release would be "in batches, starting with children and women".

Negotiations for a second phase would commence on the truce's 16th day, an Israeli official said, with media reports saying it would see the release of the remaining captives.

Under the proposed deal, Israel would maintain a buffer zone inside Gaza during the first phase, according to Israeli media.

- Strikes -

Among the sticking points in talks have been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the scale of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.

The UN's 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.

Netanyahu has rejected a full withdrawal from Gaza and opposed any post-war role for Hamas in the territory.

Blinken said Tuesday Israel would ultimately "have to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed" Palestinian Authority, and embrace a "path toward forming an independent Palestinian state".

He added that the "best incentive" to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace remained the prospect of normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, speaking in Oslo, said the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire showed that international pressure on Israel "does pay off".

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to pound targets across Gaza.

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Wednesday that strikes across the territory killed at least 27 people including a seven-year-old boy.

Israel's military said it had targeted Hamas militants overnight.

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Y.Ishikawa--JT