Negotiations have come further than they have at any previous occasion, according to mediating Qatar. Consistent media reports had previously claimed that the talks had entered a final phase where it was about minor detail issues.
The largest obstacles have been passed, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Majed al-Ansari:
But that does not mean that we have reached the end of the negotiations.
The spokesperson rejects reports that the whole thing could be announced as early as Tuesday. He warns against going ahead of events, as "the smallest detail can undermine the entire process".
We can confirm that the two drafts have been delivered to both parties, says al-Ansari according to BBC.
Sources from Hamas and mediating Egypt say to AP that the Palestinian Islamist movement has accepted the agreement. If so, the ball is in the Israeli government's court.
Hamas is said to back down
According to reports leaked from the negotiations, Hamas has taken a step back from a demand that Israel's military should withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip.
USA's President Joe Biden said on Monday that an agreement is close at hand. He spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and with his mediating colleague from Qatar, Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, on Monday.
Parallel to this, an Israeli delegation and a Palestinian one are said to have negotiated through intermediaries in Qatar's capital Doha. The delegations are reported to be sitting in separate rooms, with the mediators going between them.
According to various media reports, it is intended that some hostages will be released immediately when an agreement has been reached, and a total of more than 30 hostages in a first phase. But this assumes that the persons in question are also alive, which Israel wants to assure itself of.
Israeli resistance
As early as Monday, an agreement was said to be near, but it has also been said many times before.
In Israel, it was received with dismay by Prime Minister Netanyahu's right-wing extremist government colleagues, whose support he largely relies on.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich exclaimed on Monday that he will not stand behind an agreement, as it was being set up, and added that it was time to "clean up" in the Gaza Strip.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, right-wing extremist minister responsible for internal security, urges Smotrich to jump out of the government together with him if the agreement becomes a reality.
"Over the past year, we have managed to prevent this agreement from being reached with political power", says Ben-Gvir in a clip on social media, according to the newspaper Haaretz.
The historical account goes against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who consistently has accused opponent Hamas of shooting the process in the foot.
