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Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of an agreement to end the war in Gaza on Monday, an official familiar with the negotiations said, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks involving envoys from US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
The text for the ceasefire and the release of the hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the heads of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence agencies and the Qatari prime minister, the official said.
Steve Witkoff, who will become the US envoy when Trump returns to the US presidency next week, attended the talks, according to the official. A US source said the outgoing Biden administration’s envoy, Brett McGurk, was also there.
“The next 24 hours will be crucial to reach an agreement,” the official said, characterizing the draft as a result of progress made in the early hours of Monday morning.
Israel’s Khan Radio, citing an Israeli official, reported Monday that the Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had received the draft and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israeli leaders. Israel, Hamas and Qatar’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials from both sides, while not confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress in the talks.
A senior Israeli official said the deal could be sealed within days if Hamas responds to the proposal. A Palestinian official close to the talks said the information from Doha was “very promising”, adding: “The gaps have been narrowing and there is a lot of pressure towards an agreement if all goes well until the end.”
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been working for more than a year to negotiate an end to the war in Gaza.
Trump’s deadline is approaching
For months, both sides have generally agreed on the principle of a cessation of fighting in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. However, Hamas has always insisted that the 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 disbanded.
Trump’s January 20 inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there will be “hell to pay” if hostages held by Hamas are not released before he takes office, while outgoing President Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.
The official said the talks continued into the early hours of Monday morning, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalize the deal.
Talks to broker a cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas have resumed in Cairo, and sources close to the talks say the agreement could be signed in the coming days. Palestinians in southern Gaza say they hope this round of talks will lead to an end to the war so life can resume.
The head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, was also in the Qatari capital as part of the talks, the official said.
Trump envoy Witkoff has traveled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.
Biden also spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Sunday, stressing “the immediate need for a cease-fire in Gaza and the return of hostages along with an increase in humanitarian aid made possible by the cessation of hostilities under the agreement,” the White House said.
5 killed in Israeli attack on school shelter
Bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday, with Israeli military strikes killing at least 21 people, medics said. These include five killed in an Israeli attack on a school in Gaza City that was sheltering displaced families.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave devastated and most of the population displaced.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline nationalist who has opposed previous attempts to reach a deal, denounced the latest proposals as “surrender” and “a disaster for the national security of the State of Israel.”
In the past few months, fighting has been particularly intense along Gaza’s northern edge, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently empty the buffer zone.
A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Ubaid, said the group’s fighters had attacked Israeli forces in the area, killing at least 10 soldiers and wounding dozens of others in the past 72 hours. Israel confirmed on Saturday that four soldiers were killed.
