{"id":9364,"date":"2024-12-18T12:33:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T07:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=9364"},"modified":"2024-12-18T12:33:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T07:33:26","slug":"gaza-truce-talks-gain-momentum-as-officials-push-for-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/news\/gaza-truce-talks-gain-momentum-as-officials-push-for-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza truce talks gain momentum as officials push for deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON: An agreement to halt the 14-month-old war in Gaza and free prisoners held in the Palestinian enclave could be signed in coming days with talks in Cairo making progress, sources briefed on the meeting said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, have made&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1877828\">intensive efforts<\/a>&nbsp;in recent days to advance the talks before President Biden leaves office next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe believe \u2014 and the Israelis have said this \u2014 that we\u2019re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism,\u201d White House spokesperson John Kirby told&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbcafrica.com\/wire\/655042\/\">Fox News<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been in this position before where we weren\u2019t able to get it over the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sources said a ceasefire deal could be days away that would stop the fighting and return prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hamas said in a statement a deal was possible if Israel stopped setting new conditions. A Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts said negotiations were serious, with discussions under way about every word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sources briefed on the meeting said Netanyahu was on his way to Cairo, but a statement from Netanyahu\u2019s office said he had a meeting on Tuesday with senior military and security officials on Mount Hermon, a strategic plateau just inside Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Separately, his spokesperson messaged Israeli correspondents to say: \u201cThe prime minister is not in Cairo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two Egyptian security sources said Netanyahu was not in Cairo \u201cat this moment\u201d but a meeting was under way to work through the remaining points, chief among them a Hamas demand for guarantees that any immediate deal would lead to a comprehensive agreement. The sources felt Tuesday night could be decisive in set\u00adting next steps.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON: An agreement to halt the 14-month-old war in Gaza and free prisoners held in the Palestinian enclave could be signed in coming days with talks in Cairo making progress, sources briefed on the meeting said on Tuesday. The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, have made&nbsp;intensive efforts&nbsp;in recent days to advance [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}