Biden: Israel and Hamas ‘on brink of’ signing ceasefire deal
Israel and Hamas are “on the brink” of signing a ceasefire deal that would release hostages and “surge” aid into Gaza, Joe Biden has said.
The US president used his final foreign policy speech in office to announce that the war could soon be brought to an end after months of negotiation.
He said: “We are on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition.”
He added that the US-backed deal would “free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance”.
Mr Biden, who will leave the White House on Monday, said he had learnt through “years of public service” to “never, never, never, ever give up”.
The Telegraph understands that Israel is willing to withdraw its troops from Gaza after all hostages have been released under the deal.
Although Mr Biden claimed credit for the “breakthrough”, the shift in position follows talks between Qatar’s prime minister, Israel’s intelligence chiefs and Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy.
“We are not sure if it is hours or days or more,” one Israeli source said, as the White House said negotiators were “on the cusp” of an agreement.
The issue of Israeli military control over Gaza following an end to the war has long been a sticking point in previous ceasefire talks.
Israel has never formally committed to leaving the Strip, but an Israeli official close to the talks said if Hamas adhered to all the rules set out in three phases of a new deal, Israeli troops would exit the enclave.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has previously insisted that Israel maintain security control over Gaza, implying that soldiers would be stationed indefinitely.
But Hamas’s core demand in the ceasefire negotiations has been a complete withdrawal of troops immediately after a ceasefire takes effect.
The Israeli official added that Palestinians would be able to return to northern Gaza during the ceasefire, while Israel will continue to control the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt during the truce.
Hamas is expected to release 34 hostages during the first of three phases in the ceasefire, while Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in return.
Women, children, the elderly and the ill are among the hostages set to be released in the first phase, but Hamas has so far not publicly confirmed how many of them are alive.
As the phases progress, Israeli troops will gradually withdraw from Gaza but Israel has reportedly proposed the establishment of a new buffer zone in the strip to prevent future terror attacks.
Humanitarian aid will be significantly increased to Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire while discussions about a new governing body and reconstruction of Gaza will be held in the final phase.
The source told The Telegraph that Israel was waiting for Hamas’s approval to enter the last part of the negotiations.
They said: “Both president Biden and Donald Trump want a ceasefire to happen by the time the new administration takes over. Or at least that there’ll be a framework for a deal in the coming days. We are not there yet, but there is potential for real progress.”
In Jerusalem, family members of hostages and their supporters protested against the offered deal since it supposedly includes the gradual release of hostages in different stages in accordance to Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media reports.
A scuffle broke out between protesters and police, with footage showing officers shoving a group of men back as they chanted against the deal.
Eliezer Egert, a protester from Jerusalem, said: “I came here to protest on behalf of all the families of the hostages who do not want this deal to go through.
“They believe that any hostage deal would be detrimental to the ultimate victory in the war and any release of terrorists that would have to come along with that is just the incentive for further hostag- taking on behalf of the Arabs.
“And we’re calling on Netanyahu and president-elect Trump to not see this deal through.”
It came as two Israeli government ministries were on Monday night instructed to prepare to receive hostages freed from Gaza through the ceasefire, according to Channel 12
Eleven of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase are Israeli men under the age of 50 who are in serious health conditions, including Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, both of whom have been held hostage in Gaza for years.
The office of Mr Netanyahu released a statement on Sunday night, saying he had spoken to Mr Biden about the progress in negotiations and updated him on the “mandate he gave to the negotiating team to Doha in order to advance the release of the hostages”.
Positive talks
Mr Netanyahu met with Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s envoy, on Saturday while Israeli officials met with Mr Trump’s people in the US. According to the source, the talks were positive and led to Mr Netanyahu sending David Barnea, the chief of Mossad, to Qatar for another round of ceasefire talks.
Mr Netanyahu also met with security cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sunday to convince them to support a ceasefire.
The Israeli prime minister told Mr Smotrich, his finance minister, that it would be in his interest to support the ceasefire as Mr Trump was pushing hard for it. That way it would be easier for Israel to get Mr Trump’s support for an annexation of the West Bank, another source familiar with the issue told The Telegraph.
Brig Gen Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the hostages and the missing, is expected to meet with the Red Cross to discuss the details of hostage and prisoner exchange if a framework is agreed on, an Israeli official told The Telegraph.
David Lammy, the UK Foreign Secretary, arrived in Israel on Sunday evening where he met with his counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, in Jerusalem.
Mr Sa’ar stressed that Israel was interested in a hostage deal and “is working to achieve it”.
He said: “The only question is whether Hamas will be ready to make a deal, and we will know that soon.”
Mr Lammy and Mr Sa’ar also discussed “regional issues”, including the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
The Foreign Secretary also met with Yair Golan, the leader of the Left-wing Democrats party, on Monday during his trip to Israel.
The Israeli military said five of its soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza on Monday, while eight others were wounded.
The deaths bring the Israeli military’s losses to 408 since it began a ground offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian territory on Oct 27 2023.