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The terms of an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages are being finalized, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC.
It comes as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said a truce and hostage deal could be reached “this week.”
An Israeli official also told the Reuters news agency that negotiations were in “advanced stages,” and that a deal was possible in “hours, days or longer.”
US President Joe Biden He spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.and with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar, who is mediating the negotiations, on Monday.
Sullivan said Biden was also due to speak with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
The Palestinian official told the BBC that Hamas and Israeli officials were holding indirect talks in the same building on Monday.
Netanyahu faces fierce opposition to a possible deal within his governing coalition.
Ten right-wing members, including some from Netanyahu’s own Likud party, sent him a letter opposing a truce.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that a wave of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City on Monday killed more than 50 people.
“They bombed schools, houses and even gatherings of people,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was investigating these reports. Separately, he said five soldiers were killed on Monday in the northern Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken hostage to Gaza.
In response, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 46,500 people have died during the war.
Israel says 94 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead, as well as four other Israelis who were kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.
