Hamas said earlier that the talks have reached their ‘final stages’, while expressing hope that the current round will ‘end with a clear and comprehensive deal’.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement has sent a high-level delegation to Qatar on Tuesday evening to partake in the indirect Hamas-Israel talks, following recent progress in the negotiations.
In a statement, the Palestinian group said the delegation will be participating “in the final details of the ceasefire agreement”.
Earlier, Hamas said in a statement that it held a series of “consultations with the leaders of Palestinian factions” over the progress in the negotiations in Doha.
Hamas noted that the talks have reached their “final stages”, while expressing hope that the current round will “end with a clear and comprehensive deal”.
“The leaders of the [resistance] forces and factions expressed their satisfaction with the course of the negotiations, stressing the necessity of a general national preparation for the next stage and its requirements,” Hamas said on its Telegram channel.
Delegations from the United States and Israel have also been engaging in the talks in Doha this week.
Some of the officials at the talks include U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and outgoing President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy, Brett McGurk.
Israel is represented by several officials, including the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, and the director of the Shin Bet internal security agency, Ronen Bar.
On Tuesday, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, told reporters in Doha that the negotiators were working on the “final details” of a potential Gaza ceasefire deal.
“The talks that are ongoing now are on the final details of reaching an agreement,” Al-Ansari told a weekly press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He noted that “there will be no announcement” before a deal is reached, but confirmed that Qatar sent Hamas and Israel a draft of the ceasefire proposal.
“Therefore we shouldn’t be overexcited about what’s happening right now, but certainly we are hopeful,” he explained.
The talks are in a race against time ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20, after he had repeatedly threatening that “hell” would break loose if a deal was not reached by then.
Two officials involved in the talks told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Hamas accepted the proposal, although the Palestinian group has yet to formally comment on the matter.
The current proposal entails three stages, each lasting for 42 days. During the first phase, Hamas would release a total of 33 captives – including female civilians and soldiers – as well as children and those aged over 50.
Israel would, in turn, release 30 Palestinian prisoners for each civilian captive and 50 for each female soldier.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has carried out a genocide in the Gaza Strip where it has killed at least 46,645 Palestinians, according to figures by Palestine’s authorities. The figure is an undercount of the actual death toll with thousands missing and still trapped under the rubble.
A study published by The Lancet journal last week said the death toll is likely 40 percent higher than the figure shared by Palestine’s health authorities.
