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US-led mediators have sent the final draft of a ceasefire proposal to Israel and Hamas after a “breakthrough” in talks over a deal to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.
People familiar with the matter said it left the warring parties the closest they have been to ending the 15-month conflict since at least July, when an earlier push to secure an agreement broke down.
“The final deal is now with all sides for approval,” a diplomat briefed on the Doha-based talks said, adding a “breakthrough” had been made around midnight on Monday. “The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal.”
It came after a flurry of diplomacy involving US president-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli spy chief David Barnea and Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have struggled for months to broker a deal to end the conflict and secure the release of about 100 hostages held by Hamas in the besieged strip, over a third of whom are no longer believed to be alive.
But the talks gathered momentum after the election of Trump, who has repeatedly demanded all hostages be released before his inauguration on January 20. He has warned that otherwise there will be “all hell to pay”.
A person familiar with the latest talks said: “We are 98 per cent close.”
Mediators have previously expressed hopes they were closing in on a deal, only to have them dashed by Israel and Hamas refusing to make the necessary concessions to push an agreement over the line.
But US President Joe Biden said on Monday “we’re at the brink” of a ceasefire for hostage deal “finally coming to fruition”.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was a “pivotal point in the negotiations”, adding: “We are close to a deal and it can get done this week.”
The mediators now have to wait for responses from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas’s leadership.
In a statement, senior Hamas officials said they stressed the Palestinian militant group’s “keenness to reach an agreement to stop the war on Gaza” in discussions with a senior Turkish official.
A second person familiar with the talks said Israel was waiting for Hamas’s leadership to approve the latest proposal, before the parties “go into closing negotiations”.
A shift in Netanyahu’s position came down to the fact that ending the war had become a priority for Trump, the person added, saying “the only difference is Trump. Netanyahu does want to align with Trump” and get a deal.
Mediators have been seeking to broker a multiphase agreement to end the conflict that erupted after Hamas militants rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s thunderous retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, Palestinian officials said, and reduced much of the besieged strip to wasteland.
Disagreements between the two sides have included where Israeli troops redeploy, the return of displaced Palestinians to the strip’s north, and how many and what category of Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for hostages.
Israel has also demanded that Hamas identify which hostages are still alive.
Hamas has insisted any deal end with a permanent ceasefire and Israeli troops fully withdrawing from Gaza, something Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.
The latest talks have been based on the multiphase proposal, which would lead to an initial six-to-eight week truce, during which about 34 hostages, including women, the elderly and wounded would be released.
Several hundred Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli jails in return.
Netanyahu is expected to face resistance from far-right allies in his ruling coalition who are opposed to halting the war and releasing Palestinians convicted of terrorism offences. Analysts expect the premier to have the votes to approve a deal.
Far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have previously threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government if an agreement was finalised.
Their opposition is believed to have been decisive in scuttling past rounds of talks, according to people familiar with the matter.
Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, said on Monday an impending deal was a “catastrophe” and “surrender”.
He urged Israel to “conquer and cleanse the entire strip” and “open the gates of hell on Gaza” until Hamas capitulated and released the hostages.
Netanyahu met with both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich on Sunday in an effort to persuade them not to leave the government over a ceasefire agreement.