'Very optimistic': Qatar says Israel-Hamas hostage talks 'closest' to deal since Oct 7 attack

The negotiations to free hostages captured by Hamas since the terrorist group’s attack on Israel on October 7 have reached their “closest point” to a deal and have also reached the “final stage”, Qatar has said. “We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said, adding negotiations have reached a “critical and final stage”. Qatar, the negotiator between Israel and Hamas, has brokered a deal to free over 240 hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire. So far, with Qatar’s deliberation, only four hostages have been released. “We are very optimistic, very hopeful,” Al-Ansari told a briefing. “But we are also very keen for this mediation to succeed in reaching a humanitarian truce,” he said. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the return of all the Israelis taken hostage by Hamas is the “sacred and supreme mission.” “Returning our hostages is a sacred and supreme mission - to which I am committed. We will not let go of the mission to return them, and it is my responsibility as well as the war cabinet’s,” he said.

The chief of Hamas on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was near a truce agreement with Israel, even as the deadly assault on Gaza continued and rockets were being fired into Israel.

Hamas officials were “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters.

With inputs from agencies