Joe Biden said Tuesday from the White House that an agreement on the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is “very close.”
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The US President declared: “We are now very close, very close” to reaching an agreement, and “we can return some of these hostages to their homeland very soon.”
“I don’t want to go into details because nothing is done until it is done,” he stressed, adding that “things look good at the moment.”
The US President’s statements carry the same tone used by other key stakeholders. Qatar, which is acting as a mediator in this regard, announced on Tuesday that the negotiations had entered their “final stage.”
For his part, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who resides in Doha, announced in a brief message on the Telegram application: “We are close to concluding the truce agreement.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who convenes his war cabinet on Tuesday, announced “progress” in the case of about 240 hostages who, according to Israeli authorities, were taken to the Gaza Strip after the bloody and unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on October 7. On Israeli territory.
Two informed sources told AFP on Tuesday that the agreement would include the release of “50 to 100” civilian hostages in exchange for the release of 300 women and children held by Israel. The transfer will take place in stages, at a rate of “ten” Israeli hostages to “thirty” Palestinian prisoners per day.
