Middle East: Qatar says Gaza truce talks in 'final stages'

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he believed a majority of the Israeli government would support a Gaza hostage deal if one is agreed.

Saar's comments come after vocal opposition from far-right nationalist parties in the coalition.

"I believe that if we achieve this hostage deal, we will have a majority in the government that will support the agreement," he said Tuesday in a press conference in Rome with the Italian foreign minister.

He added that there was a "true willingness" among Israeli government ministers to support a ceasefire agreement.

The Islamist militant group Hamashas not yet delivered its response to mediators overthe ceasefire proposal because Israel did not submit maps of its forces' withdrawal from Gaza, a Hamas official told Reuters news agency.

This comes as both Israelis and Palestinians await the announcement of an agreement that would include the return of the 98 Israeli hostages and an end to fighting in Gaza. 

Thousands of people are taking part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv calling for the Israeli government to sign the deal.

As talks on a ceasefire and a hostage deal between Israel and Hamascontinue in Doha, Palestinians in Gazaare waiting to see if an agreement will be reached this time. 

"It's not the first time such talk has surfaced. I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I hold on to the hope that it will end in a few days and we can return home to home, which was partially destroyed," Imad Khalil, 53, told DW by phone from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

He was displaced to the south while some of his children and relatives stayed in northern Gaza. They weren't able to see each other during the war.

As the outlines of a possible deal emerge, one of the main concerns for many displaced Palestinians is the possibility of returning home — although many may not have a home to return to as large areas have been razed to the ground by Israeli bombardment. According to the United Nations, more than 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, many of them multiple times.

"I hope to reunite with them soon, and I pray that we are all safe and well," Khalil said. "We are living in a nightmare, day and night. The bombing and death are relentless. I know Gaza is in ruins, and I am aware that after this war, there will be another battle — a battle to rebuild our lives, a fight for stability."

The emerging agreement would reportedly allow displaced Palestinians in the south to return home to northern Gaza, with a mechanism to ensure that no weapons are transferred there. 

Joud Khamis, a mother of four children, is following the news closely.

"This time, I am very optimistic, though I don't want to feel the same disappointment as in previous instances when there was talk of reaching an agreement," the 36-year-old said on the phone from Khan Yunis, adding, "I will be first in line to go back home."

Khamis said her family was forced to leave their home in Gaza City in November 2023 and has since been displaced several times. She and her family are currently living in a tent in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Like thousands of others, she hopes the agreement will allow them to return to their home in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

"This war has changed us. It has turned us into people we no longer recognize, even to ourselves," Khamis said. She said she's heard that her house in Gaza City is still standing, but she has no idea of the extent of the damage it may have suffered.

"I want even a small piece of my previous life — one without killing, death, blood, fear, and terror," Khamis said. "Let them agree to stop the war. We don't want anything else." 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a ceasefire in  Gazais "on the brink," and that it is up to Hamasto decide on accepting the deal, which also includes releasing the Israeli hostages held by the Islamist militant group.

"The ball is in Hamas's court," Blinken said in Washington. "If Hamas accepts, the deal is ready to be concluded and implemented."

Blinken also said the outgoing Biden administration would hand over a plan for the post-war management of Gaza to President-elect Donald Trump's team.

The plan includes an interim security mission involving international forces and Palestinians together. 

Blinken said a reformed Palestinian Authority would lead Gaza under the plan and would invite international partners to help establish and run an interim administration for the enclave.

Relatives of the Israeli hostages held in Gazamet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the recent developments in the negotiations between Israel and Islamist militant group Hamasover a ceasefire and a hostage deal.

According to reports in Israel, some family members demanded that the timing of the return of the last hostage held in Gaza be made known before the ceasefire deal went ahead.

Gil Dickman, the cousin of Carmel Gat, who was kidnapped and killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, said the families had heard only that the first phase of a reportedly two or three-stage deal was in the final round of negotiations. Leaked agreement drafts say the first phase would involve the release of children and the elderly, as well as some other female hostages. Others, mainly male hostages, would not be released until Israel and Hamas agreed to further phases of the deal.

"We are bothered by the fact it has not yet been agreed that all hostages are returning home," Dickman said. "We don't want to hear of more hostages killed in captivity like my cousin."

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday threatened to resign from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government should the ceasefire deal go ahead as reported. 

Ben-Gvir lamented the planned "release of hundreds of murderous terrorist from prisons," and other terms that he said would be "effectively erasing the war achievements that have been achieved with much blood by our fighters, so far, in the Gaza Strip." 

He alleged that it failed to secure the safety of all the hostages and would "seal the fate" of those not included in the deal.

Ben-Gvir called on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leader of another right-wing party within Netanyahu's coalition, to join him in quitting the government.

If both politicians' parties withdrew, Netanyahu's government would no longer command a majority. 

However, minority governments are not unheard of in Israel, and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid — who is more sympathetic to a ceasefire deal — said on Monday he'd be willing to offer Netanyahu a "safety net" to get an agreement over the line.

In other words, this appeared to be an offer not to move to topple even a minority government, at least temporarily, in the event of a deal moving forward. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz issued a statement saying that "after many months of agonizing negotiations, an agreement now seems to be within reach." 

"We understand how painful any deal with the terrorist organization Hamas is for Israel," Scholz said. "Nevertheless, the lives of the hostages must now have top priority."

He also noted how several of the hostages also had German citizenship. 

"The agreement offers a chance for a ceasefire, to finally bring the suffering in Gaza to an end," Scholz concluded. 

Qatari mediators have sent Israeland Hamasa draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting in the Gaza Strip and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners as a first step towards an end to the 15-month-old war.

Many details about the implementation of the agreement remain to be discussed, and officials on all sides have said a deal has not yet been reached. 

The draft's main points, according to news agency reports: 

In the deal's first stage — which would last several weeks — 33 hostages would be set free, including children, women, including female soldiers, men above 50, the wounded and sick. 

On the 16th day after the deal takes effect, negotiations would start on a second stage, with the aim of securing the return of the remaining living hostages — male soldiers and younger civilian males — and the return of the bodies of dead hostages. In return, Israel would free a significant number of Palestinian prisoners, estimated between several hundred and a 1,000, including some serving long sentences for deadly attacks.

Under the agreement, the Israeli army would not fully withdraw until all the hostages have been returned, although a phased pull back would take place, and unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed to go back io the region.

The draft agreement also calls for a significant increase in the humanitarian aid allowed into the Gaza Strip.

The issue of Gaza's future governance remains unknown.

German news agency DPA cited an Israeli government spokesman as saying that indirect talks with Hamas in Doha were making progress but were not complete. 

"We are really hoping that we will soon be able to announce good news," the spokesperson said. "We are close, but not yet at the conclusion." 

He said Hamas had been showing greater seriousness in recent weeks and over the past few days in particular. 

The Israeli spokesman also said conditions had changed in Israel's favor in recent weeks given the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on October 16, 2024 and the weakening of the "Iranian axis" in the region, seemingly a reference to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria.

DPA cited the spokesman as saying that all this, coupled with increased pressure from Gaza's population, had led to "optimal conditions for a deal." 

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that administers the Gaza Strip, also reported "progress made in the negotiations underway in Doha." 

In a statement released Tuesday, the group said that the potential completion of the agreement had "reached its final stages" and that it "hoped that this round of negotiations will end with a clear and comprehensive agreement." 

Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 61 deaths and 280 injured from Israeli bombardment over the past 24 hours. The Hamas-led organization does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry has been touting a major "breakthrough" in longstanding and so far fruitless international ceasefire talks for Gaza between Israel and Hamas. 

The Gulf country, one of the leading mediators in the talks, said it was "hopeful" that the talks had entered their "final stage." 

"I can confirm that the talks are going on at the highest level here in Doha as we speak right now," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said at a news briefing on Tuesday. 

"During the past months, there were underlying issues, major issues between the two parties unresolved. These issues were resolved during the talks in the past couple of weeks, and therefore we have reached a point where the major issues that were preventing a deal from happening were addressed," he said. 

Al-Ansari said the talks were now focused on the "final details of reaching an agreement." 

Israel over the weekend sent its Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea to the talks in Doha to participate.

This is not the first time that one of the lead negotiators — whether Qatar, the US or Egypt — have hailed a breakthrough in talks and the possibility of an imminent truce.

The timing of this latest push is also internationally conspicuous, coming in the final days before US President-elect Donald Trump's January 20 inauguration.