A woman and child stand by drying clothes hanging on a laundry line outside tents housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas. - AFP
DOHA (AFP): Negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release are progressing in Doha and a counter-proposal could soon be presented to Hamas, Qatar said on Tuesday.
Israel's spy chief has left the Qatari capital but technical teams are now discussing details of a potential deal, foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said.
Mossad head David Barnea had flown in for talks with the Qatari premier and Egyptian officials on Monday, the first since mediators failed to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.
"We are at the point now where we are expecting that the counter-proposal would be presented to Hamas, but this is not the final step in the process," Ansari said.
"I don't think we are at a moment were we can say we are close to a deal. We are cautiously optimistic because talks have resumed, but it's too early to announce any successes," he added.
On Monday, a Hamas official said the Palestinian militants would accept a partial Israeli withdrawal before exchanging prisoners, easing previous demands for a complete pullout from Gaza.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan, speaking to the Al-Manar TV station of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, held out hope of a "complete end of military operations", saying negotiations could be concluded "within days".
Last week, Hamas proposed a six-week truce and the release of about 42 hostages in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners per hostage.
However, a threatened Israeli assault on the city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million Gazans are sheltering, most of them displaced by fighting elsewhere in the territory, could derail the talks, Ansari said.
"Any operation in Rafah right now will be a humanitarian catastrophe," he said, adding that it would be "difficult for the negotiation process to succeed within the parameters of such an attack".
US President Joe Biden said Monday he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a team to Washington to discuss how to avoid an all-out assault on the southern Gaza city.
The war began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack from Gaza on October 7 that left about 1,160 dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Palestinian militants seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages during the October 7 attack, but dozens were released during a week-long truce in November.
Israel believes about 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 -- eight soldiers and 25 civilians -- who are presumed dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 31,819 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. - AFP
