Gaza ceasefire deal in 'closing stages': US official

Negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal are in their “closing stages,” a US official said Wednesday, ahead of talks between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden will try to close some “final gaps” in his talks with Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday but key elements including the fate of the hostages remain in Hamas’s court, the senior administration official said.

“We believe it’s in the closing stages and a deal is closeable,” the US official said on condition of anonymity in a call previewing Netanyahu’s visit.

There would be a “lot of activity in the coming week” towards reaching a long-sought deal, said the official, adding that an agreement was “not only possible, it’s essential and necessary.”

The US official played down a fiery speech to Congress by Netanyahu on Wednesday in which he pledged “total victory,” saying that the talks with Biden would be more focused on the mechanics of a deal.

A possible truce now hinges on a handful of issues about how a deal would come into effect, with Hamas having eased its demand for a full Israeli pull-out, the official said.

“I don’t expect the meeting (with Netanyahu) to be a yes or no, it’s a kind of like ‘how do we close these final gaps?’ And there are some things we need from the Israeli side, no question,” the official said.

“But there’s also some key things that are only in the hands of Hamas because the hostages are in the hands of Hamas.”

A Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 114 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 42 who the military says are dead.

More than 39,100 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza.