‘Breakthrough’ final draft of Gaza truce deal presented to Israel and Hamas; US foresees ceasefire pact ‘this week’

The Biden administration foresaw a possible Gaza truce as soon as this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg News on Monday, adding that there were no guarantees that the parties would agree to such a deal.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun summoned Nawaf Salam, head of the International Court of Justice, to designate him prime minister after most legislators nominated him on Monday, a big blow to Hezbollah, which accused opponents of seeking to exclude it.

Final draft of Gaza truce deal presented to sides after ‘breakthrough’

Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the war in Gaza, said an official briefed on the negotiations, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

The official said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister.

Steve Witkoff, who will become US envoy when Trump returns to the US presidency next week, attended the talks, the official said. A US source said the outgoing Biden administration’s envoy Brett McGurk was also there.

“The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal,” said the official, characterising the draft as the outcome of a breakthrough reached in the early hours of Monday.

Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, received a Hamas delegation headed by senior official Khalil al-Hayya to discuss the ceasefire talks, said the emir’s office.

Israel’s Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had both received a draft and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.

Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress at the talks.

“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” a Hamas official told Reuters on Monday, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the negotiations were being coordinated between Biden’s and Trump’s teams.

“There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal,” Saar told reporters.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza, so far fruitlessly.

In Cairo, an Egyptian security official told Reuters the draft sent to the two warring sides did not comprise the final agreement but “aims to resolve outstanding issues that had hindered previous negotiations”.

Israel’s Channel 12 said Israeli government institutions had been told to prepare for the intake of weak and sick hostages. A spokesperson from the Israeli health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The warring sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.

Trump’s 20 January inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while outgoing President Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.

Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.

Bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday, with Israeli strikes killing at least 21 people, said medics, including five killed in a strike at a Gaza City school sheltering displaced families.

The Israeli military said five soldiers had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to nine the number of its troops killed since Saturday.

For the last several months, fighting has been particularly intense along the northern edge of Gaza, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate a buffer zone.

Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said the group’s fighters attacked Israeli forces in the area, killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring dozens of others in the past 72 hours.

US sees possible Gaza deal this week, Sullivan tells Bloomberg

The Biden administration foresaw a possible Gaza truce as soon as this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg News on Monday, adding that there were no guarantees that the parties would agree to such a deal.

Sullivan, speaking to Bloomberg in an interview, added that Biden’s administration has been in contact with Trump’s team and had sought to have a united front on the issue ahead of Washington’s 20 January transition of power.

“The pressure building here towards the end of President Biden’s term has been considerable,” said Sullivan. “It’s there for the taking.”

“The question is now: Can we all collectively seize the moment and make this happen?” Sullivan told Bloomberg, adding that Biden had directed him to work closely with the incoming team.

Lebanon’s Nawaf Salam to be designated PM, angering Hezbollah

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun summoned Nawaf Salam, head of the International Court of Justice, to designate him prime minister after most legislators nominated him on Monday, a big blow to Hezbollah, which accused opponents of seeking to exclude it.

The choice of Salam underlined the major shift in the power balance among Lebanon’s sectarian factions since the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah was pummelled in a war with Israel last year, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

The presidency said Salam, currently outside the country and due to return on Tuesday, had secured the backing of 84 out of parliament’s 128 legislators, and Aoun had summoned him to assign him to form the government.

Salam won backing from Christian and Druze factions, and prominent Sunni Muslim MPs, including Hezbollah allies and opponents of the group who have long demanded it give up its powerful arsenal, arguing it has undermined the state.

But legislators from Hezbollah and its Shi’ite ally the Amal Movement, which hold all the seats reserved for Shi’ites in parliament, did not name anybody, indicating they currently do not intend to participate in Salam’s government and raising the prospect of a sectarian rift if they remain outside Cabinet.

Senior Hezbollah legislator Mohammed Raad, whose Iran-backed group had wanted incumbent Najib Mikati to stay in the post, said Hezbollah’s opponents were working for fragmentation and exclusion. He said the group had “extended its hand” by electing Joseph Aoun as president last week only to find the “hand cut”.

“Any government at odds with coexistence has no legitimacy whatsoever,” said Raad. The group would act calmly and wisely “out of concern for the national interest”, he added.

Last week’s election of army commander General Aoun, who enjoys the support of the US and Saudi Arabia, was another sign of shifts in the political landscape, in which Hezbollah had long held decisive sway.

It has marked a revival of Saudi influence in a country where it was eclipsed by Iran and Hezbollah years ago.

Aoun’s election and the designation of a new premier are steps towards reviving Lebanese government institutions which have been paralysed for more than two years, with the country having neither a head of state nor a fully empowered Cabinet.

Faisal Karami, a Sunni legislator aligned with the group, said he had nominated Salam, citing demands for “change and renewal” and pledges of Arab and international support for Lebanon.

Christian legislator Gebran Bassil said Salam was the “face of reform”. “Hope is in change,” he said.

The new administration faces huge tasks including rebuilding areas levelled by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hezbollah, and launching long-stalled reforms to revive the economy and address the root causes of the collapse of Lebanon’s financial system in 2019.

Turkey’s intelligence chief, Hamas officials discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts

Turkey’s intelligence chief discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza in a phone call on Monday with officials from the political wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said a Turkish security source.

The source said MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin and Hamas officials had agreed to continue efforts to reach a truce. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had discussed the efforts in a call with a Hamas official on Saturday as well, said a Turkish diplomatic source at the weekend.

Angry hostage families harangue Israeli hardliner Smotrich

Angry members of some of the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza harangued Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday over his opposition to a deal being negotiated in Qatar to halt the fighting and bring their relatives home.

Smotrich described the deal taking shape as “a catastrophe” for Israel’s security and said Israel should keep up its campaign in Gaza until the complete surrender of Hamas, the militant group that ran the enclave before the war.

Dozens of members of the hostage families, many carrying photographs of the missing, squeezed into a committee room in the Israeli parliament where a meeting of the finance committee was held to examine the 2025 budget.

Some furious, some crying and pleading, they attacked Smotrich in an emotionally charged encounter that lasted for more than an hour, accusing him of abandoning the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still left in Gaza.

“These kidnapped people can be returned,” said Ofir Angrest, whose brother Matan was taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

“The conditions are ripe, it’s time for a deal, the Prime Minister said it. How can you, the minister of finance, oppose the return of all these abductees?”

Smotrich, leader of one of the hardline nationalist religious parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, has been among the loudest opponents of a deal which he described as a “surrender” to Hamas.

Iranian army takes delivery of 1,000 new drones

A thousand new drones were delivered to Iran’s army on Monday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, as the country braces for more friction with arch-enemy Israel and the United States under  Trump.

The drones were delivered to various locations throughout Iran and are said to have high stealth and anti-fortification abilities, according to Tasnim.

“The drones’ unique features, including a range of over 2,000 kilometres, high destructive power, the ability to pass through defence layers with low Radar Cross Section, and autonomous flight, not only increase the depth of reconnaissance and border monitoring but also boost the combat capability of the army’s drone fleet in confronting distant targets,” the news agency added. DM

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