US hopeful of Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in ‘coming days’

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US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday he hoped a “firm and final agreement” on a temporary Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages could be reached “in the coming days”, after progress in negotiations at the weekend.

Sullivan’s comments in an interview with CNN came as Israeli newspapers reported that the country’s war cabinet had approved a rough outline of a deal. Mediators previously hoped they were close to a breakthrough, only for talks to stall because of wide gaps between the positions of Hamas and Israel, but the US is pushing hard to get an agreement.

Sullivan said negotiators from the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar had come to an “understanding” on the “basic contours” of a deal during talks in Paris, though the details still needed to be worked out.

A person briefed on the talks said progress had been made in the French capital and an Israeli technical team was due in Doha to discuss the proposal. Hamas was reviewing the Paris framework, the person added.

Indirect discussions by Egypt and Qatar with Hamas were still needed to clinch the agreement, Sullivan said, but suggested the talks could be completed soon.

“We hope that in the coming days, we can drive to a point where there is actually a firm and final agreement on this issue, but we will have to wait and see,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday described Hamas’s demands as “delusional” and said the militant group needed to back down from them before any progress could be made.

“Hamas started out with just crazy demands. It’s too soon to say if they’ve abandoned them. They’re not in the ballpark or even the city, they’re in another planet,” Netanyahu said…