The Gaza Strip is in ruins. Here are hills of rubble where apartment blocks stood, and pools of sewage-tainted water spreading disease. City streets have been churned into dirt canyons and, in many places, the air is filled with the stench of unrecovered corpses.
Israel and Hamas are at their “closest point” in months to agreeing on a ceasefire deal that could halt the devastating 15-month-long war in Gaza and release hostages, Qatar said Tuesday. “We believe that we have reached the final stages,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said in Doha, where negotiators are meeting, while seeking to temper expectations until a final deal is in place. But as to whether a deal would be announced Tuesday, a senior Hamas official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, replied: “No, no, no.” An Israeli official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks, said that the deal is now in Hamas’s hands. The first phase of the proposed deal would involve the release of 33 living hostages during a 42-day ceasefire, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, according to U.S. officials. Over the course of the war, ceasefire negotiations have faltered at the 11th hour on several occasions.
A ceasefire cannot come quickly enough for Gazans, who over the past 15 months have survived what conflict monitors describe as the most destructive war of the century. But as weary optimism sweeps over the Gaza Strip, first comes an all too familiar ritual: As the ceasefire negotiations pick up pace, so do the airstrikes.
Washington Post