Gaza is 'on the brink' of peace, President Biden declares as Israel and Hamas look close to agreeing ceasefire deal
Negotiators will meet in Doha today to work towards closing a deal to end the war in Gaza after delegates from Israel and Hamas were handed a 'final' draft of an agreement on Monday.
U.S. President Joe Biden heralded the provisional agreement, laying out ceasefire terms and a hostage release deal, saying it was on 'the brink' of coming to fruition after more than a year of impasse since the last major truce.
Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of an agreement yesterday, an official briefed on the negotiations said, following a midnight 'breakthrough' in talks attended by envoys of both the outgoing U.S. president and President-elect Donald Trump.
'The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,' Biden said in a speech on Monday to highlight his foreign policy achievements.
If successful, the ceasefire deal would cap over a year of start-and-stop talks and lead to the biggest release of Israeli hostages since the early days of the conflict, when Hamas freed about half of its prisoners in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
The official briefed on the talks, who did not want to be identified, said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha.
'I think there is a good chance we can close this ... the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal,' Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday.
US President Joe Biden delivers the last foreign policy speech of his presidency at the State Department in Washington, DC, USA, 13 January 2025
Demonstrators hold signs and flares during a protest calling for the immediate release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 13
Smoke rises from a building destroyed in Israeli airstrike at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on January 12
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ball was in Hamas' court. He is due to present a post-war plan for Gaza on Tuesday, Axios reported.
Hamas said it was keen to reach a deal to end the fighting, which upended the Middle East.
An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of up to 33 hostages as part of the deal.
Ninety-eight hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters: 'There is progress, it looks much better than previously.
'I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal.'
'The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,' a Hamas official said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
A Palestinian girl sits amid the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City on January 11
Ninety-eight hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities (Pic: Tel Aviv, Jan 11)
Smoke billows from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 13
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.
The warring sides have broadly agreed for months on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement.
Trump has said there would be 'hell to pay' unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office.
Blinken said negotiators wanted to make sure Trump would continue to back the deal on the table so the attendance at the ceasefire talks of Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, along with Biden's envoy Brett McGurk, has been 'critical.'
An Israeli official who briefed reporters on the proposed deal said its first stage would see 33 hostages set free, including children, women, some of whom are female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick.
On the 16th day of the ceasefire, negotiations would start on a second stage during which the remaining living hostages - male soldiers and men of military age - would be released and the bodies of dead hostages returned.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduces President Joe Biden for Biden's final foreign policy speech in the Ben Franklin Room at the State Department's Harry S. Truman headquarters building on January 13
Palestinians displaced by the war and living in makeshift tents in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on January 13
Right wing Israelis hold images of fallen soldiers during a march in Jerusalem rejecting a potential deal with Hamas, on January 13
The deal would see a phased troop withdrawal, with Israeli forces remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages.
There would be security arrangements in 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.
The Israeli official said Palestinian militants convicted of murder or deadly attacks would also be released but numbers would depend on the number of live hostages, which was still unknown, and they would not include fighters who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
