Mediators make final push for Gaza truce deal

FE Team | Published: January 15, 2025 21:12:01

DOHA, Jan 15 (AFP): Mediators were making a final push Wednesday to seal a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, after a Qatari official involved in the talks expressed hope an agreement could be reached "very soon".
Qatar, Egypt and the United States have intensified efforts to broker a ceasefire and enable the release of hostages taken during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in its history.
US President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a phone call Tuesday that both Israel and Hamas needed to show flexibility to get a deal over the line, according to a statement from Sisi's office.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with top security officials late Tuesday to discuss the deal, his office said, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the "ball is now in Hamas's court".
"If Hamas accepts, the deal is ready to be concluded and implemented," said Blinken. An Israeli source familiar with negotiations said that talks were continuing in Doha on Wednesday.
Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday that negotiations were in their "final stages" and mediators were hopeful they would lead "very soon to an agreement".
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said there was a "true willingness from our side to reach an agreement". After months of failed efforts to end Gaza's deadliest-ever war, the latest progress comes days ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as US president.
Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. On that day, militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Relatives of Israeli hostages and war-weary Palestinians in Gaza were anxious for the deal to be finalised.
Israeli strikes kill
24 Palestinians
Gaza's civil defence agency said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people across the Palestinian territory, with Israel's military saying it had targeted Hamas militants overnight.
The latest violence, following more than 15 months of war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, comes as truce mediator Qatar said negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal were in their "final stages".
The civil defence agency said in a statement that 11 bodies were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, after Israel struck a family home in Deir el-Balah city during the night. A seven-year-old boy and three teenagers were among the dead, the agency said.
A separate strike targeted a school building used as shelter for war-displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, killing seven people and injuring several others, the civil defence agency said.
A third strike at dawn hit a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six people and injuring seven, the agency added.