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The USwhich were joined by intermediaries Qatar and Egypthe asked on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to stop the 14-month war in Gaza Strip where doctors said at least 20 people were killed in Israeli attacks Palestinians.
A Palestinian official close to the talks said Wednesday that mediators had closed loopholes in most of the deal’s clauses. He said Israel had imposed conditions that Hamas had rejected, but would not elaborate.
On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in the coming days on a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, the Nuseirat camp in the central areas and Rafah near the border with Egypt.
In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.
Since October, Israeli forces have been operating in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, as well as the nearby Jabalia camp, in a campaign the military said was aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping. The Israeli military said it hit a number of Hamas militants who are planning an immediate attack on Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.
Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling damaged the facility nearby, injuring seven medics and one patient at the hospital. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In the central Gaza Bureij camp, Palestinian families began to leave some districts after the army announced new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new rocket fire by Palestinian militants from the area.
The United States, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intense efforts in recent days to advance talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.
In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s envoy for hostage issues. Trump threatened that “hell would break loose” if Hamas did not release its hostages by January 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.
CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other sources said. The CIA declined to comment.
Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday to try to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas over the deal that Biden outlined in May.
Over the past year, there have been repeated rounds of negotiations, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on maintaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release the hostages until the troops withdraw.
The war in Gaza, sparked by a Hamas attack on communities in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel in international isolation.
The Israeli campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of its 2.3 million residents and reduced much of the coastal enclave to rubble.
Reuters