Hostage deal between Israel and Hamas could be announced as early as today, sources say

Qatar could announce a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas as early as today, diplomatic sources have told The Independent.

A deal would see the release of dozens of hostages being held inside Gaza and a temporary pause in the Israeli military offensive on the besieged territory. The Independent understands that the deal could be implemented 24 hours after it is announced.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari separately said the two sides were at “the closet point we ever had been in reaching an agreement’ adding that negotiations were at a “critical and final stage”.

It came after Ismail Haniyeh, chief of the militant group’s political wing, confirmed on Tuesday morning that Hamas was “close to reaching a deal on a truce” and that it had delivered its response to mediators from Qatar.

A Hamas official. Issat el Reshiq, told Qatar’s flagship TV channel Al Jazeera that negotiations were centred on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and details of the exchange of captives.

Sources close to the negotiations told The Independent that as many as 75 civilian hostages, including dozens of children, released along side a pause in the fighting. Previous attempts to get this far have fallen at the last hurdle, one diplomatic source said, adding that it was important to be cautious as so far nothing has been signed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he hopes “there will be good news soon”.

“We are making progress. I don’t think it’s worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon,” he told military reservists according to a statement. His office said that “in light of developments in the matter of the release of our hostages,” he would convene his war cabinet at 6pm local time (4pm UK), his broader security cabinet at 7pm and the full cabinet at 8pm. It is understood that any deal would have to be voted on by the cabinet.

Media reports have said that it could involve a multi-day truce of up to five days, comprising a ceasefire on the ground and limits to Israeli air operations over southern Gaza. In exchange, up to 300 Palestinians would be released from Israeli jails, according to a report from Mr Ravid who wrote for Axios suggesting that a ratio of three prisoners for every one hostage would be used. The Independent understands that the exact ratio of how many Palestinian prisoners would be released to the number of Israeli hostages has not been determined.

Negotiators have been working around the clock to secure the release of about 240 mostly Israeli hostages, including babies under one year old, who were seized on 7 October when Hamas launched it unprecedented attacks into southern Israel which killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians. So far only four female hostages have been released in deals brokered by Qatar, the US and Egypt.

Pressure has mounted on the Israeli authorities from the families, who have been increasingly alarmed about the safety of their loved ones as Israel has launched a ferocious bombardment of the 42-km- besieged Gaza Strip.

Sources close to the negotiators have told The Independent the talks had been fraught and have not touched upon the exchange of military personnel. Although Israel has in the past firmly rejected requests for ceasefire, one sources said a ceasefire or a pause was essential to be able to move the hostages safely.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the conflict, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also separately met Qatari authorities.

The ICRC – which transported the four previously-released hostages to Egypt a few weeks ago – said it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages, but as a neutral intermediary it was ready “to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to”.

Talks of an imminent deal have swirled for days. US President Joe Biden raised hopes on Monday. saying he thought a deal to free the hostages was close. “I believe so,” Mr Biden said when asked whether a hostage deal was near, and crossed his fingers. On Sunday, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, told ABC that Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas “in coming days.”

The same day Qatari prime minister sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a press conference in Doha that the main obstacles to a deal were now “very minor”, with mainly “practical and logistical” issues to surmount.

Mr Netanyahu has faced mounting criticism for not prioritising a hostage deal as Israeli forces have been pushing deeper into Gaza with a possible operation set to open in the south of the besieged enclave.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. In the wake of the attack on 7 October the Israeli military launched a ferocious bombing campaign and imposed a crippling blockade on Hamas-run Gaza. Across the territory, there are shortages of food, water and fuel for generators to power basic infrastructure.

The health ministry inside the Hamas-controlled territory more than 13,000 Palestinians including 5,500 children have been killed. Israeli ground troops and artillery have penetrated deep inside the strip, including encircling and entering hospitals they accuse militants of using as bases.

The Israeli bombardment has turned much of Gaza, particularly northern Gaza where military operations have been focused, into a wasteland, with about two-thirds of the The has shifted to the Jabaliya camp, a dense warren of concrete buildings near the northern Gaza City that houses refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Israel has been bombarding the area for weeks, and the military said Hamas fighters have regrouped there and in other eastern districts after being pushed out of much of Gaza City.

Fighting has also intensified outside the Indonesian Hospital on the outskirts of Jabaliya. Health officials in Gaza said on Tuesday that hundreds of patients and displaced people are trapped inside with dwindling supplies after some 200 were evacuated the day before. Palestinian officials said an Israeli shell struck the hospital on Monday, killing 12 people. Israel denied shelling the hospital, saying its troops returned fire on militants who targeted them from inside.