Gaza truce deal ’could be signed off within hours’

A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas could come within hours with both sides reportedly close to signing off on a truce, with Donald Trump warning of ‘a lot of trouble’ if an agreement isn’t reached.

A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas could come within hours with both sides reportedly close to signing off on a truce which would become effective on January 22.

US President Joe Biden confirmed the negotiating teams were “on the brink” of a deal in his final foreign policy speech on Tuesday (AEDT), while White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said a deal “can get done this week,” in the last days of the Biden administration.

President-elect Donald Trump, whose Middle East envoy has been in the Middle East for talks on a deal, said an agreement “very close.”

“We are very close to getting it done. They have to get it done. If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there — a lot of trouble like they have never seen before. They will get it done,” Mr Trump told Newsmax TV, a conservative US broadcaster.

Multiple Israeli and Arab media outlets have reported a significant breakthrough in talks, with a deal likely announced Tuesday morning (local time), in which 33 hostages would be released during the first phase, with a staged withdrawal of IDF forces from Gaza.

Israeli outlets reported that both sides had received a final draft of the deal, with Israel broadly accepting the parameters.

Kan TV, Israel’s state broadcasting authority reported that Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet would meet on Tuesday morning “to ratify the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.” Qatar based negotiators were also set to meet in Doha to finalise the deal.

Hamas issued a statement confirming that progress had been made: “We renew our pledge with our steadfast and patient people and with our heroic prisoners in the prisons, and we affirm that their freedom is near,” it said, according to The Times of Israel.

In a briefing to reporters, Israeli officials said that the first stage of the potential deal would see Hamas release 33 “humanitarian” hostages — children, women, female soldiers, the elderly and the sick. Israel believes most of the 33 are alive but that some are dead, the officials said, according to The Times of Israel.

If that first stage is carried out, on the 16th day of the deal, Israel will begin negotiations on a second stage to free the remaining captives — male soldiers and men of military age — and the bodies of slain hostages, The Times of Israel reported.

The officials credited Donald Trump’s threats that “all hell will break loose” if a deal wasn’t achieved by January 20 for Hamas’ concessions.

Mr Trump has not explained what he meant by his repeated threat but on Monday (AEDT) Vice-president elect JD Vance said the Trump administration would help Israel “knock out” Hamas if a deal wasn’t agreed.

However Israel has insisted that it won’t return the body of assassinated Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as part of the hostage deal.

Mr Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and called the ruler of mediator Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on Monday as negotiations intensified.

The US leader has been pushing to get a deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas before he leaves office on January 20 and hands over to Donald Trump.

Mr Sullivan said he was more hopeful of a deal now than he was on previous occasions since the Gaza war broke out following Hamas’s October 6, 2023 attack on Israel.

“It’s because the gaps have fundamentally narrowed down,” said Mr Sullivan.

Progress had been made on issues including the formula for the exchange of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and on how Israel’s forces would be “postured” in Gaza, he said.

Mr Sullivan credited the fact that Israel had achieved its military objectives in Gaza, while Hamas has suffered “catastrophic losses”.

“When you put those two factors together, we believe that the time is right to get a deal and to have to close,” Mr Sullivan said.

However Mr Netanyahu still faces hurdles to get the proposed ceasefire deal agreed within his government, with his far-right coalition partners opposing it.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism party, warned his party “will not be part of” the emerging deal, which he said would be “a catastrophe for Israel’s national security.”

“We will not be part of a surrender deal that would include releasing terrorists, stopping the war and dissolving the achievements that were paid for with much blood, and abandoning many hostages,” Mr Smotrich said in a statement.

The Walla news site reports that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was likely to resign from the government if the deal was agreed, and Mr Netanyahu was hoping to persuade Mr Smotrich to stay in government even if he voted against the agreement.

The Times of Israel reports that the Netanyahu coalition would probably have majority support for a deal even if both far-right parties were to vote against it. The deal would apparently require approval by the security cabinet and by the government, but not a Knesset vote.

National Unity leader Benny Gantz said his party would give full backing to the deal, calling it “a supreme value and a strategic necessity” to bring back the hostages.