American-led negotiators are nearing a deal in which Israel will halt its war in Gaza for about two months in exchange for the release of more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas.
A deal that could be sealed in the next two weeks would transform the conflict engulfing the region, the New York Times reported.
Negotiators have developed a written draft agreement, bringing together the proposals put forward by Israel and Hamas over the past 10 days into a basic framework that will be the subject of talks in Paris today. While there are still important differences to resolve, the interlocutors are cautiously optimistic that a final agreement is close, according to US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details of the sensitive negotiations.
President Biden spoke by phone separately on January 26 with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, who have already served as mediators with Hamas to narrow remaining differences. He also sent CIA Director William J. Burns in Paris for talks with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. If Burns makes enough progress, Biden could then send his Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, who has just returned to Washington, back to the region to help finalize the deal.
"The two leaders reaffirmed that the hostage deal is essential to establishing a lasting humanitarian pause in the fighting and ensuring that additional life-saving humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need throughout Gaza," the White House said in a statement on Friday. evening, summarizing the President's conversation with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar. "They emphasized the urgency of the situation and welcomed the close cooperation between their teams to advance the recent discussions," the statement added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, reiterated his commitment to securing the release of the hostages who were not released as part of a more limited deal in November. "To date, we have returned 110 of our hostages and we are committed to bringing everyone home," he said. "We're dealing with it, and we're doing it around the clock, including now."
The hostages have been held since October 7, when Hamas gunmen invaded Israel, killing about 1,200 people and capturing about 240 more in the worst terror attack in the country's history. Israel's military retaliation has since killed more than 25,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry. It is not clear how many of those killed in Gaza were fighters of the terrorist organization.
A short-lived truce in November, brokered by Biden along with Qatar and Egypt, led to a seven-day pause in fighting in exchange for the release of more than 100 Hamas hostages and about 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israel. About 136 people captured on October 7 remain unaccounted for, including six US citizens, although some of them are believed to be dead.
The deal to be struck now will be broader in scope than the previous one, officials say. In the first phase, fighting will stop for about 30 days until the women, elderly and wounded hostages are released by Hamas. During this period, the two sides will work out the details of a second phase that will suspend military operations for approximately another 30 days in exchange for the detained Israeli soldiers and male civilians. The ratio of Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons has yet to be agreed, but it is seen as a solvable problem. The deal will also allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
While the agreement will not be the permanent ceasefire that Hamas has demanded for the release of all hostages, officials close to the talks believe that if Israel halts the war for two months, it is unlikely to resume it in the same way it has been fighting it so far. The truce would provide a window for further diplomacy that could lead to a broader resolution of the conflict.
Such a deal would provide a welcome breath of fresh air for Joe Biden, who has taken a lot of criticism from the left wing of his own party for supporting Israel's response to the October 7 attack. Netanyahu has also come under considerable pressure to secure the release of the hostages, although he has vowed to press the military operation to destroy Hamas.
He also resisted American and international pressure to ease the military campaign against Hamas and reiterated his resolve in a statement on Saturday. "We are determined to complete the task, to eliminate Hamas. No matter how much time it takes, we will not back down from the mission," stressed the Prime Minister.
Not only could a new deal ease some of the strain on Biden at home, it could de-escalate the volatile situation in the wider Middle East. During the seven-day pause in November, other Iranian proxy groups such as the Houthis and Hezbollah also carried out lower-level attacks against American, Israeli and other targets.
Since the end of the ceasefire in November, Hamas and Israel have effectively stopped communicating through their intermediaries. But the ice was broken by a more limited deal announced on January 16 to allow the delivery of medicine to Israeli hostages in exchange for more medicine and aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
From that point on, both Israel and Hamas submitted proposals on paper for a broader agreement, and American mediators bound them into a single draft agreement. Biden spoke by phone with Netanyahu on January 19, their first conversation in nearly a month, and the two discussed how to proceed with the hostages.
Two days later, the president sent McGurk to the region, where he met with General Abbas Kamel, the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Directorate and the nation's second most powerful official, as well as Sheikh Mohammed of Qatar. The talks became complicated when Israeli media released a recording of Netanyahu apparently calling Qatar's role as a mediator "problematic" because of the country's relationship with Hamas, prompting Qatar to call the remarks "irresponsible and destructive."
McGurk returned to Washington on January 26 and met with Biden in the Oval Office along with Burns and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who was also visiting the Middle East. With his advisers at his side, Joe Biden then separately called President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Sheikh Mohammed.
"They confirmed that every effort must now be made to strike a deal that would result in the release of all hostages along with a sustained humanitarian pause in the fighting," the White House said in its summary of the conversation with Sisi. /BGNES
