Report: Hamas OKs Draft Ceasefire Agreement

Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, two officials involved in the talks said Tuesday. Mediators from the United States and Qatar said Israel and the Palestinian militant group were at the closest point yet to sealing a deal to bring them a step closer to ending 15 months of war, the AP reports.

• The AP obtained a copy of the proposed agreement, and an Egyptian official and a Hamas official confirmed its authenticity. An Israeli official said progress has been made, but the details are being finalized. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.

• The three-phase agreement—based on a framework laid out by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council—would begin with the release of 33 hostages over a six-week period, including women, children, older adults, and wounded civilians in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.
• Among the 33 would be five female Israeli soldiers, each to be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 militants who are serving life sentences. The Israeli official said Israel assumes most of the 33 are alive.
• During this 42-day phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from population centers, Palestinians could start returning to what remains of their homes in northern Gaza and there would be a surge of humanitarian aid, with some 600 trucks entering each day.
• Details of the second phase still must be negotiated during the first. Those details remain difficult to resolve—and the deal does not include written guarantees that the ceasefire will continue until a deal is reached.

• The deal would allow Israel throughout the first phase to remain in control of the Philadelphi corridor, the band of territory along Gaza's border with Egypt, which Hamas had initially demanded Israel withdraw from. In the second phase, Hamas would release the remaining living captives, mainly male soldiers, in exchange for more prisoners and the "complete withdrawal" of Israeli forces from Gaza, according to the draft agreement.
• "I believe we will get a ceasefire," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a speech Tuesday, asserting it was up to Hamas. "It's right on the brink. It's closer than it's ever been before." Officials tell the Times of Israel that a deal could be announced as soon as Wednesday in a joint statement from the US, Qatar, and Egypt.
• "We believe that we are at the final stages, but until we have an announcement—there will be no announcement," Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar's foreign ministry, said Tuesday, per the New York Times.

(More Israel-Hamas war stories.)