Gaza Strip war talks on cusp of a deal: Biden

Source: CBS News
Outgoing US President Joe Biden says negotiators are on “the brink” of securing a deal that many hope could end the current hostilities in Gaza.
Negotiators will meet in Doha seeking to finalise the details of a plan to end the war, which started in October 2023.
Just a week before Donald Trump takes office, Biden said a ceasefire and hostage release deal that he had championed was close to fruition.
Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft on Monday (US time), an official briefed on the negotiations said.
It followed a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Biden and president-elect Trump.
“The deal … would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,” Biden said in a speech on Monday.
The Doha meeting will be on Tuesday (local time).
If successful, the ceasefire deal would cap over a year of start-and-stop talks.
It would lead to the biggest release of Israeli hostages since the early days of the conflict, when Hamas freed about half of its prisoners in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ball was in Hamas’ court. Hamas said it was keen to reach a deal.
An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of up to 33 hostages as part of the deal. Ninety-eight hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
“There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.
“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” a Hamas official said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.
The warring sides have broadly agreed for months on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump’s January 20 inauguration is widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement. Trump has said there will be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office.
Blinken said negotiators wanted to make sure Trump would continue to back the deal on the table so the attendance at the ceasefire talks of Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, along with Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk, has been “critical.”
The deal would involve a phased troop withdrawal, with Israeli forces remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages. There would be security arrangements in the Philadelphi corridor, along the southern edge of Gaza, with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.
Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed back, with a mechanism to ensure no weapons are moved there. Israeli troops will withdraw from the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.
The Israeli official said Palestinian militants convicted of murder or deadly attacks would also be released. Numbers would depend on the number of live hostages, which was still unknown, and they would not include fighters who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
-with AAP