(Reuters) -Mediator Qatar has handed Israel and Hamas a “final” draft of a ceasefire and hostage release agreement designed to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Monday.
A breakthrough was reached in Doha after midnight following talks between Israel’s spy chiefs, President-elect Trump’s Middle East envoy and Qatar’s prime minister, the official said.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said. U.S. officials are racing to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” it said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 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 gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
(Editing by Dubai NewsroomEditing by Gareth Jones)
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