US says Gaza truce deal ‘possible’ this week as Israel ramps up attacks

The United States says it sees the potential for a Gaza ceasefire to be reached as early as this week as the Israeli military continues to hammer the enclave to deadly effect.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said during a news conference on Monday that while a deal may be possible within days, it is not guaranteed.

“We are now at a pivotal point in the negotiations for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza,” Sullivan said, adding US Preisdent Joe Biden had recently spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani about the negotiations.

The outgoing US president will also soon speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, he said.

“We are close to a deal, and it can get done this week. I’m not making a promise or a prediction, but it is there for the taking, and we are able to work to make it happen,” Sullivan said.

Ceasefire talks mediated by the US along with Qatar and Egypt are ongoing at advanced stages in Doha, where top Israeli negotiators like the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence agencies are expected to stay for another day.

Hamas also said the talks have made some progress over some of the contentious issues that have been discussed many times over 15 months of a war that has killed more than 46,500 Palestinians in Gaza.

“The negotiation over some core issues made progress, and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” an official with the Palestinian group told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

Officials said a final draft of the agreement, which includes an exchange of captives in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, was presented to all sides after the latest discussions in the Qatari capital yielded results.

Netanyahu and Biden held a phone call on Sunday, discussing the latest developments, with Biden again saying the time for an agreement is now.

US President-elect Donald Trump and his top officials have been repeatedly threatening that there will be “hell to pay” if the captives are not released or there is no agreement by the time Trump takes office on January 20.

“It’s very clear that President Trump threatening Hamas and making it clear that there is going to be hell to pay is part of the reason why we’ve made progress on getting some hostages out,” Vice President-elect JD Vance said.

Netanyahu is also facing internal pressure from far-right members of his governing coalition, who have been threatening to leave if a deal is reached – even though Netanyahu has stressed that Israel will hold military control over Gaza regardless of any deal.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads one of the hardline ultranationalist religious parties in the country’s ruling coalition, said the fact that a deal is taking shape in Qatar is a “catastrophe for national security”.

Angry family members of Israelis held captive in Gaza entered a committee room in the Israeli parliament on Monday to accuse Smotrich of abandoning their loved ones and saying “conditions are ripe for a deal”.

Israel intensifies attacks amid talks

The Israeli military has been launching relentless waves of heavy air attacks and artillery shelling across the Gaza Strip as talks of a potential agreement have heated up.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera on Monday that at least 45 Palestinians were killed in the past day as a result of Israeli attacks across the enclave.

Many attacks were focused on Gaza City in the northern part of Gaza, where more than 100 days of an Israeli siege has left at least 5,000 people killed or missing, according to local authorities.

The siege has also destroyed hospitals and other critical infrastructure, displaced thousands of people and seen many Palestinians taken prisoner by the Israeli military.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Monday, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said many drone attacks have taken place since the early hours of the morning.

“These are happening in areas where the vast majority of displaced people have taken shelter, areas that are densely populated,” he said.

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 in its war on Gaza to 408 since October 27, 2023.

Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister who initiated the Oslo peace accords in the early 1990s, told Al Jazeera a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is “long overdue”.

“This is the main issue: How many [captives and prisoners] will be released? Once they agree on it and the [timing] of the release, then it is possible to have an agreement,” he said.

The humanitarian situation remains dire in Gaza as the Israeli military continues to block most aid from getting in and starving the population, roughly half of which is made up of children.

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