The terms of a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages are being finalised, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told the BBC.
It comes as White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said a truce and hostage deal could be done “this week”.
An Israeli official also told news agency Reuters that negotiations were in “advanced stages”, with deal possible in “hours, days or more”.
US President Joe Biden 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 conducting indirect talks in the same building on Monday.
Netanyahu is facing fierce opposition to a potential deal from within his governing coalition.
Ten right-wing members, including some from Mr Netanyahu’s own Likud party, have sent him a letter opposing a truce.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Monday killed more than 50 people.
“They bombed schools, homes and even gatherings of people,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was looking into these reports. Separately, it said five soldiers were killed on Monday in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 46,500 people have been killed during the war.
Israel says 94 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead, as well as another four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead. (BBC)
