Biden: Israel-Hamas Gaza ceasefire next week

A NEW ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could start as soon as Monday and last through Ramadan, US President Joe Biden said, in a deal that would also free dozens of hostages held in Gaza.

In the protracted bid to broker a truce, mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been putting proposals to the warring parties, with negotiations still ongoing.

They are seeking a six-week halt to the fighting and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s

October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war.

The truce deal could include the release of several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel, media reports suggest.

“My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden said on when a truce might start, adding: “We’re close, we’re not done yet.”

He later said an agreement “in principle” was in reach for a temporary truce to last through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts on

March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar. “There’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out.”

Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani — whose country hosts Hamas leaders and helped broker a one-week truce in November — is due in Paris.

Sheikh Tamim has met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha as part of his bid for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement,” the official Qatar News Agency said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that any truce would delay, not prevent, a ground invasion of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip.

There has been huge international pressure, including from the US, for Israel to hold off on sending troops into Rafah, where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge from the fighting.

(AFP)