(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump and Joe Biden both said they are optimistic a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be agreed within days, pausing the devastating war in Gaza that’s raged for more than 15 months.
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“We are very close to getting it done,” Trump, who succeeds Biden as US president on Jan. 20, said Monday in an interview with Newsmax. “I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished, maybe by the end of the week.”
Hours earlier, Biden said the warring sides were “on the brink of a proposal.”
Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s negotiators presented a detailed outline to Hamas during indirect discussions in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Hamas, on Tuesday, said talks are in the final stages and it hopes this round of negotiations will end with a “clear and comprehensive” agreement.
Qatar, which along with the US is the main mediator, says a deal’s closer than ever. The sides still disagree on some implementation details, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters.
The first phase of a ceasefire, to last 42 days, would lead to the release of 33 hostages from Gaza, some of whom are thought to be dead, according to Israeli officials. Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli jails and a buffer zone established inside the Gaza Strip to protect Israeli communities near the Palestinian territory, the officials said.
While the terms of a second-phase are still to be negotiated, the Israel Defense Forces will not fully withdraw from Gaza until all the roughly 98 hostages are freed.
All sides are still urging caution and saying there’s no guarantee of a ceasefire. Divisions remain between Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and many other countries, and Israel.
The biggest obstacle has long been over whether a truce would amount to a permanent end to hostilities, something favored by Hamas, the US and regional Arab states.
Israel says its war goal — the complete destruction of Hamas as a military and political entity — is immutable and no ceasefire will change that.
The White House has sought to bridge the gap by working on a phased ceasefire, with the second part involving talks about a permanent truce. The US wants aid flows to Gaza to increase massively as soon as a pause in the war begins.
“It’s there for the taking so the question is now can we all collectively seize the moment and make this happen,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Still, “we’ve been here before, we’ve been close before and haven’t gotten across the finish line.”