Qatar on Monday presented Israel and Hamas with a final draft of a deal to end the Gaza war, following a midnight breakthrough in talks attended by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's envoy, according to Reuters.
An official briefed on the negotiations said the text for a cease-fire and release of hostages was hammered out at talks in Doha.
The negotiations involved the chiefs of Israel's Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies, Qatar's prime minister as well as Steve Witkoff, who will become U.S. envoy when Trump takes office next week. Officials from the outgoing U.S. administration are also thought to have participated.
"The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal," the official said.
Israel's Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported Monday that Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had both received a draft and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel's leaders.
Israel, Hamas and the Foreign Ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress at the talks.
A senior Israeli official said a deal could be sealed within a few days if Hamas replies to a proposal. A Palestinian official close to the talks said information from Doha was "very promising," adding: "Gaps were being narrowed and there is a big push toward an agreement if all goes well to the end."
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza, so far fruitlessly.
Both sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
However, Hamas has always insisted that the deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there would be "hell to pay" unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while outgoing President Joe Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.
The official said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalize an agreement.
The head of Egypt's general intelligence agency Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was also in the Qatari capital as part of the talks, the official said.
Trump envoy Witkoff has traveled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and traveled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.
Biden also spoke Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing "the immediate need for a cease-fire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal," the White House said.
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza after a Hamas incursion on Oct. 7, 2023, caused around 1,200 deaths and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel has killed over 46,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has opposed previous attempts to reach a deal, denounced the latest proposals as a "surrender" and a "catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel."
Meanwhile, bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday, with Israeli military strikes killing at least 15 people, medics said, including five killed in an Israeli strike at a Gaza City school sheltering displaced families.
For the last several months, fighting has been particularly intense along the northern edge of Gaza, where Israel claims it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping. Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to depopulate a buffer zone permanently.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida said the group's members attacked Israeli forces in the area killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring dozens of others in the past 72 hours. Israel confirmed Saturday that four soldiers had been killed.
