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The terms of a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza are being hammered out, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told the BBC.
It comes as White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said a truce and hostage deal could be done “this week.”
An Israeli official also told the Reuters news agency that negotiations are at an “advanced stage” with a deal possible “within hours, days or more.”
US President Joe Biden He spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sundayand with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar – who is mediating the negotiations – on Monday.
Sullivan said Biden was also scheduled to speak with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
Recent developments have seen Netanyahu face fierce opposition to a potential deal within his governing coalition. Ten members of the right, including some from Netanyahu’s Likud party, sent him a letter against the truce.
A Palestinian official told the BBC on Monday that Hamas and Israeli officials were holding indirect talks in the same building.
Revealing some of the possible details of the deal, the official stated that “detailed technical discussions” had taken a considerable amount of time.
Both sides agreed that Hamas would release the three hostages on the first day of the deal, after which Israel would begin withdrawing troops from populated areas.
Seven days later, Hamas would release four more hostages, and Israel would allow the displaced from the south to return to the north, but only on foot along the coastal road. Cars, animal-drawn carts and lorries would be able to cross through an overpass next to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team.
The agreement includes provisions for the continued presence of Israeli forces Philadelphia Corridor and maintaining a buffer zone of 800 meters along the eastern and northern borders in the first phase that will last 42 days.
Israel has also agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including approximately 190 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.
On the other hand, according to the Gaza civil defense agency, on Monday more than 50 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City.
“Schools, houses and even public gatherings were bombed,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
He said the Israeli army was looking into those reports. Separately, he said five soldiers were killed on Monday in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by an attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken as hostages to Gaza.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 46,500 people have died in the war.
Israel says 94 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom are believed to be dead, as well as four other Israelis kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.
