Doha, Jan 15 (Representative) Palestine-based Hamas has accepted a draft agreement of ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a hostage release deal amid the ongoing war with Israel since October 2023, two officials involved in the talks told the Associated Press. Negotiators were near to hammering out the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday after marathon talks in Qatar. According to United States and Qatar’s mediators, Israel and Hamas are at the closest point to signing the agreement and ending the 15-month-long conflict. Quoting an Israeli official, the report said progress has been made, but the details of the deal are being finalized. The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been involved in finalising a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas since last year and securing the release of hostages captured during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which started the offensive. Negotiators met in Qatar on Tuesday hoping to hammer out final details dead.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari earlier told a news conference that both sides were presented with a text and talks on the last details were under way. Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was “right on the brink”. “It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” and word could come within hours or days, he said. Per an earlier report, under the current deal, Hamas would turn over 33 Israeli hostages in the final week of the Biden administration before next Monday. Israeli government believe that Hamas and its allies still hold 94 hostages taken from Israel during the October 2023 attack, at least 34 of whom are dead. If the first stage proceeds as planned, on the 16th day from the deal taking effect, negotiations would start on a second stage during which the remaining living hostages would be released and the bodies of the dead hostages returned.Under the deal, troop withdrawal would be phased, with Israeli forces remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages. In addition, there would be security arrangements at the Philadelphi corridor, along the southern edge of Gaza, with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed back, with a mechanism to ensure no weapons are moved there.
Israeli troops will withdraw from the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants convicted of murder or deadly attacks would also be released but numbers would depend on the number of live hostages, which is still unknown. The prisoners would not be released to the West Bank. Hamas fighters who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel would not be released.There would also be a significant increase in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, where international bodies including the United Nations warn that the population is facing a severe humanitarian crisis. Who will run Gaza after the war is one of the great unknowns of the negotiations and it appears that the current round of talks has not even addressed the issue due to its complexity and the likelihood it would hold up a limited deal.Israel has said Hamas can play no role at all and it has rejected the involvement of the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that exercises limited sovereignty in the occupied West Bank.It has also said from the beginning of its campaign in Gaza that it would retain security control over the enclave after the fighting ends. However, the international community has said that Gaza must be run by Palestinians but efforts to find alternatives to the main factions among civil society or clan leaders have proved largely fruitless.