“The movement has sent its response to the brothers of Qatar and the mediators. We are getting closer to concluding a ceasefire agreement,” the Hamas leader said on Tuesday.
This Tuesday, talks are increasing about the release of hostages in the hands of Hamas in exchange for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement accuses Israel of a deadly attack on a besieged hospital.
“The movement has sent its response to the brothers of Qatar and the mediators. We are getting closer to concluding a ceasefire agreement,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a short message on the movement’s Telegram account on Tuesday. Palestinians.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric met on Monday evening with Qatari leaders and Ismaïl Haniyeh based in the Gulf emirate to “move forward on humanitarian issues related to the armed conflict.” Israel and Gaza.
The US “confident”
Qatar, Egypt and the United States are currently working on an agreement to try to release hostages kidnapped by Hamas in Israel in return for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Although the ICRC assured that it would not take part in these talks, it insisted that its “teams will be authorized to visit the hostages to ensure their well-being and to administer medication, and to enable the hostages to communicate with them. “their families,” says a press release.
“We have never been so close, we are confident. But there is still a lot to do. Nothing will be done until everything is done,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
And to a journalist who asked him the following question: “Is an agreement to release the hostages close?” American President Joe Biden replied in Washington: “I think so.”
The rescue of hostages is one of the goals of the ongoing Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, launched after the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7.
In Israel, authorities said 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed in this attack of unprecedented scale and violence in the country’s history.