Hamas: a truce is “close”

Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh said on Tuesday that a truce agreement with Israel is in sight.

There was no immediate response from Israel on the status of negotiation efforts to secure the release of some of the 240 captives captured by Hamas on seventh of October.

Israel hasn’t responded to a negotiation call for a hostages’ release captured by Hamas.

“We are close to reaching a deal on a truce,” Haniyeh said, according to a statement sent by his office to AFP.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, The Israeli aggression on Palestine has resulted in a death toll of more than 13,300 Palestinians, 5,600 of whom are children, and 3,500 women.

The total of injured has reached 31,000 Palestinians, all while hospitals are no longer functioning properly to treat the injured.

Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad confirmed that their groups had agreed to the terms of a truce deal.

The tentative deal includes a five-day truce, a ceasefire on the ground and limits to Israeli air operations over southern Gaza.

The agreement would result in the release of 50 to 100 Israeli civilians and foreign hostages in exchange for 150-300 Palestinian prisoners release from Israeli prisons – among them women and children- and no military personnel.

US President Joe Biden had said he believed a deal was close On Monday, as hopes grew after Qatar started mediating the talks, as the country has a Hamas political office, and has -behind-the-scenes- diplomatic links with Israel at the same time.

On the Other hand, The International Committee of the Red Cross president had traveled to Qatar to meet Hamas’s Haniyeh on Monday.