Donald Trump and Joe Biden both said they are optimistic a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be agreed within days, pausing the devastating war in Gaza that’s raged for more than 15 months.
“We are very close to getting it done,” Trump, who succeeds Biden as U.S. president on Jan. 20, said Monday in an interview with Newsmax. “I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished, maybe by the end of the week.”
Hours earlier, Biden said the warring sides were “on the brink of a proposal.”
Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s negotiators presented a detailed outline to Hamas during indirect discussions in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Hamas, on Tuesday, said talks are in the final stages and it hopes this round of negotiations will end with a “clear and comprehensive” agreement.
Qatar, which along with the U.S. is the main mediator, says a deal’s closer than ever. The sides still disagree on some implementation details, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters.
The first phase of a ceasefire, to last 42 days, would lead to the release of 33 hostages from Gaza, some of whom are thought to be dead, according to Israeli officials. Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli jails and a buffer zone established inside the Gaza Strip to protect Israeli communities near the Palestinian territory, the officials said.
While the terms of a second-phase are still to be negotiated, the Israel Defense Forces will not fully withdraw from Gaza until all the roughly 98 hostages are freed.
All sides are still urging caution and saying there’s no guarantee of a ceasefire. Divisions remain between Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other countries, and Israel.
The biggest obstacle has long been over whether a truce would amount to a permanent end to hostilities, something favored by Hamas, the U.S. and regional Arab states.
Israel says its war goal — the complete destruction of Hamas as a military and political entity — is immutable and no ceasefire will change that.
The White House has sought to bridge the gap by working on a phased ceasefire, with the second part involving talks about a permanent truce. The U.S. wants aid flows to Gaza to increase massively as soon as a pause in the war begins.
“It’s there for the taking so the question is now can we all collectively seize the moment and make this happen,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Still, “we’ve been here before, we’ve been close before and haven’t gotten across the finish line.”
The war has sparked a wider crisis in the Middle East, spreading to Lebanon and leading to missile strikes between Israel and Iran, the main sponsor of Hamas. It’s also caused huge divisions globally, and Biden’s position in the run-up to last year’s U.S. election was undermined by many Democrats criticizing him for not putting more pressure on Israel to end the fighting.
The U.S. hopes an end to the war will calm the region and help Israel normalize ties with Arab states such as Saudi Arabia.
Israeli financial assets have gained on optimism about a deal, with the shekel appreciating 1.8% against the dollar on Monday, its best performance in about seven weeks. The war has weakened Israel’s economy and led to a surge in defense spending. As a result, the government issued more bonds than ever last year.
Hamas triggered the conflict when it raided southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages. Israel unleashed an assault that has killed at least 46,000 people in the Palestinian territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced much of it to rubble.
The Israeli military says just over 400 of its soldiers have been killed in combat in Gaza. More than half of Hamas’s roughly 35,000 fighters have died, according to Israeli estimates.
Pressure Building
Biden’s main Middle East envoy, Brett McGurk, has been in the region for more than a week negotiating the details of a ceasefire agreement.
Trump and Biden’s teams have worked closely on the issue, with both sides wanting a deal before the presidential handover next week.
“The pressure building here toward the end of President Biden’s term has been considerable,” Sullivan said.
The only ceasefire so far lasted for a week and ended in December, 2023, after the sides blamed each other for breaking its terms.
Talks over a new deal progressed over the summer before stalling.
Two of Israel’s most right-wing cabinet members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have hinted they’ll try to block a ceasefire, citing the need for military action against Hamas to continue. But Netanyahu probably has enough cabinet votes for a deal to pass.
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