Hope for ceasefire
JERUSALEM/CAIRO/NEW YORK - US President Joe Biden said he hopes to have a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza start by next Monday as the warring parties appeared to close in on a deal during negotiations in Qatar that also aim to broker the release of hostages.
The presence of both sides for socalled proximity talks — meeting mediators separately but in the same city — suggested negotiations were further along than at any time since a big push at the start of February, when Israel rejected a Hamas counter-offer for a fourand-a-half-month truce.
Mr Biden said he hoped a ceasefire would start within days.
“Well I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend,” he said, when asked when he expected a ceasefire to start.
“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Mr Biden told reporters during a visit to New York.
A US official said US negotiators had been pushing hard to get a pause-forhostages deal by Ramadan’s beginning on March 10 and top US officials were working on the issue last week. The optimism appeared to grow out of meetings between the Israelis and Qataris, the official said.
In public, Israel and Hamas continued to take positions far apart on a possible truce, while blaming each other for delays. After meeting Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Ismail Haniyeh, the reclusive head of Hamas, said his group had embraced efforts to find an end to the war, and accused Israel of stalling while Gazans die under siege.