NNA - A "final round" of Gaza truce talks is due to start Tuesday in Qatar, said a source briefed on the negotiations aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas war after more than 15 months.
Meditators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have intensified efforts to seal a ceasefire that would facilitate the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said a ceasefire and hostage release deal was "on the brink" of being finalised, even as heavy fighting rocked Gaza.
Hamas's October 7 attack, the deadliest-ever in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
On that day, militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,584 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures that the UN considers reliable.
"A final round of talks is expected to take place today in Doha," the source briefed on the talks told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.
The source said that Tuesday's meetings "are aimed at finalising the remaining details of the deal".
The heads of Israel's intelligence agencies, the Middle East envoys for the incoming and outgoing US administrations and Qatar's prime minister are due at the talks, the source said.
"Mediators will hold separate talks with Hamas," the source added.
Successive rounds of negotiations had failed to end the deadliest war in Gaza's history, but on Monday, a source with knowledge of the talks said there had been "significant progress on the remaining sticking points".
That source also said a new "concrete" proposal was being presented to the parties, and that there had been a "positive" initial response from both sides.
The proposal, according to the source, would see more than 30 Israeli hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in an initial swap.--AFP
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