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Hopes rise for ceasefire and hostage release deal despite Israeli strikes in Gaza
Welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. It is nearly 10.30am in Gaza City and Jerusalem.
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 18 people overnight, including six women and four children, health officials said, as Israel and Hamas appeared to be coming closer to a ceasefire deal to end the 15-month war and release dozens of hostages.
Earlier in Washington, US president Joe Biden said that the contours of the deal matched a “proposal that I laid out in detail months ago”. The deal comes less than a week before the inauguration of Donald Trump as Biden’s successor.
There have been intensifying indirect negotiations in Qatar attended by Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Israel and Hamas have been holding indirect talks for more than a year mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt but they have previously stalled over issues including the exchange of hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, whether a ceasefire is permanent and the extent of the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Just one brief ceasefire has been achieved in the conflict so far, in the earliest months of fighting.
Other developments include:
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Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli airstrikes killed more than 50 people in the Palestinian territory’s main city on Monday. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes pounded Gaza City throughout the day, hitting “schools, homes and even gatherings of people”. “There is no room in hospitals to receive the wounded,” Bassal told AFP. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not immediately comment on the claims.
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The IDF said five soldiers had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to nine the number of its troops killed since Saturday.
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Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels meanwhile fired a missile at central Israel, setting off sirens and sending people fleeing to shelters without causing any casualties. Police said Tuesday several homes were damaged outside Jerusalem and released a photo of a missile casing that had crashed into a roof.
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An Israeli lawyer has filed submissions to the international criminal court (ICC) alleging incitement to genocide against Palestinians by eight Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, said at least five people were killed in the bombing of the Salah al-Din school in Gaza City, which was housing displaced Palestinian people.
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At least 46,584 Palestinian people have been killed and 109,731 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in its latest update. At least 19 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
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In a statement overnight on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military said that warning sirens sounding in the moshav of Netiv HaAsara had been “determined to be a false identification.”
The moshav is directly on the northern border of Gaza’s territory.
Deal 'very close' says Donald Trump
On Monday night, Donald Trump described a possible ceasefire as being “very close.”
“I understand ... there’s been a handshake and they are getting it finished – and maybe by the end of the week,” Trump told the American cable channel Newsmax Monday night.
He added that part of the deal would see “bodies” brought out of the Gaza Strip, without elaborating.
An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of 33 of 98 hostages still in Gaza, in the first stage of the deal, according to Reuters. Among those 33 would be children, women, female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick. It would also mean a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
In return, Israel will free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the Palestinian source close to the talks who said the first phase would last for 60 days.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Negotiators to meet today and hope to finalise plan to end war
Negotiators are to meet in Doha today to finalise details of a plan to end the war in Gaza after Joe Biden indicated a ceasefire and hostage release deal was imminent.
Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of an agreement on Monday, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
A Palestinian source close to the talks told Reuters he expected the deal to be finalised on Tuesday if “all goes well.”
David Barnea, director of Israel’s spy service Mossad, Ronen Bar director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy; Brett McGurk, Biden’s outgoing Middle East envoy and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani were hoping to forge the deal.
“The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,” Biden said on Monday.
Hopes rise for ceasefire and hostage release deal despite Israeli strikes in Gaza
Welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. It is nearly 10.30am in Gaza City and Jerusalem.
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 18 people overnight, including six women and four children, health officials said, as Israel and Hamas appeared to be coming closer to a ceasefire deal to end the 15-month war and release dozens of hostages.
Earlier in Washington, US president Joe Biden said that the contours of the deal matched a “proposal that I laid out in detail months ago”. The deal comes less than a week before the inauguration of Donald Trump as Biden’s successor.
There have been intensifying indirect negotiations in Qatar attended by Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Israel and Hamas have been holding indirect talks for more than a year mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt but they have previously stalled over issues including the exchange of hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, whether a ceasefire is permanent and the extent of the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Just one brief ceasefire has been achieved in the conflict so far, in the earliest months of fighting.
Other developments include:
-
Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli airstrikes killed more than 50 people in the Palestinian territory’s main city on Monday. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes pounded Gaza City throughout the day, hitting “schools, homes and even gatherings of people”. “There is no room in hospitals to receive the wounded,” Bassal told AFP. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not immediately comment on the claims.
-
The IDF said five soldiers had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to nine the number of its troops killed since Saturday.
-
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels meanwhile fired a missile at central Israel, setting off sirens and sending people fleeing to shelters without causing any casualties. Police said Tuesday several homes were damaged outside Jerusalem and released a photo of a missile casing that had crashed into a roof.
-
An Israeli lawyer has filed submissions to the international criminal court (ICC) alleging incitement to genocide against Palestinians by eight Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
-
Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, said at least five people were killed in the bombing of the Salah al-Din school in Gaza City, which was housing displaced Palestinian people.
-
At least 46,584 Palestinian people have been killed and 109,731 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in its latest update. At least 19 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
