Israel-Gaza ceasefire on the brink as Hamas ‘waiting for troop withdrawal maps’: Live

The US and Qatar have said that a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is closer than ever before, with America’s top diplomat saying a truce could be agreed “at any time”.

Negotiators met in Doha on Tuesday hoping to hammer out the final details of a deal, which would include the release of hostages held by Hamas in return for Palestinians held in Israeli jails being freed.

“I believe we will get a ceasefire,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said during a speech, asserting it was up to Hamas. “It’s right on the brink. It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” and word could “come anytime”.

Hamas said the talks had reached the final steps and that it hoped this round of negotiations would lead to a deal after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US. An Israeli official said talks had reached a critical phase although some details needed to be hammered out: “We are close, we are not there yet.”

Islamic Jihad, which is separate from Hamas and also holds hostages in Gaza, said it was sending a senior delegation that would arrive in Doha on Tuesday night to take part in final arrangements for a ceasefire deal.

Chris Stevenson has more.

Hamas is still waiting for Israel to submit maps showing how its military would withdraw from the besieged Gaza Strip, a source said.

During months of on-off talks to achieve a truce in the devastating 15-month-old war both sides have previously said they were close to a ceasefire only to hit last-minute obstacles.

The broad outlines of the current deal have been in place since mid-2024. President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken criticised Israel’s war strategy, saying that Hamas has recruited almost as many new members as it lost during the year-long war in Gaza.

“We’ve long made the point to the Israeli government that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone, that without a clear alternative, a post-conflict plan and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas, or something just as abhorrent and dangerous, will grow back,” Mr Blinken said in a speech at the Atlantic Council yesterday.

“Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back Hamas, militants regroup and re-emerge because there’s nothing else to fill the void,” he said.

“Indeed, we assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost. That is a recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war,” Mr Blinken added.

Upon completion of the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, negotiations over the second phase will begin on Day 16 of the truce.

According to the draft, all remaining hostages will be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm”.

Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas’s military and political capabilities are eliminated and it cannot rearm — ensuring Hamas no longer runs Gaza.

Hamas says it will not hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from everywhere in Gaza.

Effectively, Hamas has to agree to its own removal from power — something it has said it is willing to do, but it may seek to keep a hand in any future government, which Israel has vehemently rejected.

If the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal goes according to the current draft, then fighting will stop in Gaza for 42 days, and dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed.

During the first phase of the truce deal, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

On the first official day of the ceasefire, Hamas is to free three hostages, then another four on the seventh day, according to reports. After the first week, the group will make weekly releases.

The first 33 hostages to be freed will include women, children and those over 50 — almost all civilians, but the deal also commits Hamas to free all living female soldiers. Hamas will release living hostages first, but if the living doesn’t complete the 33 number, bodies will be handed over.

In exchange, Israel will free 30 Palestinian women, children or elderly for each living civilian hostage freed. For each female soldier freed, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 serving life sentences.

In exchange for bodies handed over by Hamas, Israel will free all women and children it has detained from Gaza since the war began on 7 October 2023.

During the proposed deal’s first phase, Israeli troops are to pull back into a buffer zone about 1km wide inside Gaza along its borders with Israel to allow displaced Palestinians to return to their home.

Throughout the first phase, Israel will retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, including the Rafah Crossing.

In the first phase, aid entry to Gaza is to be ramped up to hundreds of trucks a day of food, medicine, supplies and fuel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. That is far more than Israel has allowed in throughout the war.

A ceasefire deal for Gaza is said to be the closest it has been for months – with a truce also allowing the freeing of hostages still held by Hamas.

Hamas killed around 1,200 people in a terror attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, and abducted another 250. Some 100 Israelis are still being held captive inside the Gaza Strip, and the military believes at least a third of them are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.

A week before US President-elect Donald Trump takes over from President Joe Biden, officials said a breakthrough had been achieved in talks in Doha and agreement could be near.

Barney Davis covers everything we know about the draft deal: