The White House sees a ceasefire in Gaza as feasible before Trump’s inauguration on January 20

National Security Adviser announces upcoming call between Biden and Netanyahu amid new negotiations in Qatar

Jan. 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The National Security Advisor of the United States, Jake Sullivan, stated this Sunday that the talks for a ceasefire in Gaza are “very, very close” to a successful conclusion and even sees it possible to achieve a cessation of hostilities before President-elect Donald Trump will formally take office on January 20.

In an interview with the program State of the Union, Sullivan has also announced that outgoing President Joe Biden will soon have a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, while senior security officials finalize the matter in Doha (Qatar). ) the last details of this possible new agreement.

“We are very, very close to the agreement, but at the same time we are still far away because there is no agreement. I see it as feasible to reach an agreement before January 20, but I cannot be sure that we will be successful,” Sullivan said during the interview. .

This past Saturday, a senior Hamas official, on condition of anonymity, assured the Qatari newspaper ‘Al Araby al Yadid’ that the mediators had reached a preliminary agreement while waiting for the Prime Minister of Israel to give his approval to the initial text and sent the head of Israel’s Foreign Intelligence Services, David Barnea, to Doha (Qatar) to close the final text with incorporated amendments, as has finally happened.

Netanyahu met this Sunday with the two most extremist elements of his government, the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of National Security, Itamar BEn Gvir, to inform both of the developments in the Qatar negotiations, according to sources. from Channel 12 of Israeli television.

Right now, both sides agree on a ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of hostages held by Palestinian militias. Israel would not fully withdraw from the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, along the Gaza-Egypt border, until the last day of the final phase of the agreement, after gradually withdrawing its forces during the previous two stages.

What’s more, a Palestinian organization for the rights of its prisoners has provided the Palestinian agency Maan with more specific details of the agreement to exchange hostages for prisoners.

The first stage of a possible ceasefire deal with Hamas would see the release of 25 Israeli hostages in exchange for 48 Palestinian security prisoners who were freed in 2011 and imprisoned again since, along with 200 prisoners serving life sentences and another 1,000. detainees, including women, children and injured prisoners, according to the director of the Prisoners’ Club and head of the Authority’s Prisoners and Prisoners Affairs Commission Palestine, Qadura Fares.

Fares added that all Palestinian prisoners could return to their homes in East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, except those serving life sentences, who would likely be deported to Qatar, Egypt or Turkey.