Gaza ceasefire 'closer than ever'

Hamas says it is still awaiting Israeli maps

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DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM:

Negotiators were trying to clinch agreement on Tuesday on the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza after marathon talks in Qatar, with mediators and the warring sides both saying a deal was closer than ever.

However, after more than eight hours of talks, a senior Hamas official told Reuters late on Tuesday that the group was still waiting for Israel to submit maps showing how its forces would withdraw from Gaza.

"(Hamas) hasn't delivered its response yet (to the ceasefire plan) because the occupation (Israel) has not submitted the maps that will show the areas to which its forces will withdraw," said the official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

He added the maps included Israeli withdrawals from the Netzarim area in the middle of the Gaza Strip, to allow the return of the displaced people to their homes, Jabalia in the north of the tiny territory, the Philadelphi road along the southern border with Egypt, and Rafah, also near that border.

An Israeli official said talks had reached a critical phase although some details needed to be hammered out: "We are close, we are not there yet." Islamic Jihad, which is separate from Hamas and also holds hostages in Gaza, said it was sending a senior delegation that would arrive in Doha on Tuesday night to take part in final arrangements for a ceasefire deal.

"The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started," Biden said on Monday.

If successful, the phased ceasefire - capping over a year of start-and-stop talks - could halt fighting that decimated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, made most of the enclave's population homeless and is still killing dozens a day. That in turn could ease tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has fuelled conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran.

Israel would recover around 100 remaining hostages and bodies from among those captured in the Oct 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that precipitated the war. In return it would free Palestinian detainees