Gaza War: Israel, Hamas may agree on ceasefire by next week, says Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden has expressed hope that a truce in Gaza may begin early the next week. Representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the US, France, and other countries have worked as go-betweens for Israel and Hamas during a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, attempting to bring an end to hostilities and secure the release of Israeli hostages detained in Gaza.

A agreement might potentially involve exchanging several hundred Palestinian captives held by Israel for dozens of hostages.

Biden was asked during a visit to New York when such an agreement might start, and answered, “My national security advisor tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet.”

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“My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added.

Meeting in Paris over the weekend, representatives from multiple parties—excluding Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza—“came to an understanding… about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire would look like,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told the media.

According to state-affiliated Egyptian media, following the Paris meeting, Egyptian, Qatari, and US “experts” convened in Doha in recent days for discussions that were also attended by representatives of Israel and Hamas. The goal was to achieve a ceasefire prior to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the demand for the evacuation of troops “delusional” and claimed that any agreement on a ceasefire would just postpone a military attack into Rafah, in southern Gaza, where over 1.4 million Palestinians had taken refuge after violence broke out elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

The “direction (of the talks) is positive,” an unidentified Israeli official told news site Ynet on Monday. Israeli media also reported that military and intelligence personnel were traveling to Qatar for additional negotiations on an agreement.

Furthermore, according to the French president, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose nation hosts Hamas leaders and assisted in mediating a one-week ceasefire in November, is scheduled to visit Paris this week.

According to the official Qatar News Agency, Sheikh Tamim met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha to discuss efforts “aimed at reaching an immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement” in Gaza.

According to the ministry, Israel’s military operation has killed at least 29,782 individuals in Gaza, the majority of them were women and children.

About 250 captives were also taken by Hamas; 130 of them are still in Gaza, including 31 who are thought to be dead, according to Israel.