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White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
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In the efforts to achieve a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, the negotiators are likely to find a basis for understanding for a possible agreement.
Washington, DC - Officials negotiating a ceasefire for the Gaza Strip have tentatively agreed on the "basic contours" of a deal, according to the US.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday (Feb 25), adding that the US hoped a final agreement could be reached "in the coming days".
Sullivan declined to provide details
on
CNN 's "State of the Union."
However, he urged negotiators to quickly reach an agreement that could include an increase in aid to the Gaza Strip and the release of some hostages held by Hamas.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza accompanies calls for arms
“We hope that in the coming days we will get to a point where there is actually a firm and final agreement on this issue,” he said.
“We say to everyone, including the Israeli government, that it is our firm belief that we must do everything we can to reach this agreement and then we can move forward from there.
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Sullivan's comments followed a round of talks in Paris on Friday where representatives from Israel, Egypt, the United States and Qatar, which is acting as a mediator for Hamas, met to discuss a new framework for a deal.
Negotiations had stalled in recent weeks after Israeli forces advanced further into the Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas's ceasefire demands "delusional."
However, on Saturday Netanyahu said he would convene his war cabinet to discuss the new framework and then decide whether to continue negotiations.
There was no official confirmation on Sunday that the government had agreed to new talks, but reports in Israeli media citing unnamed officials said the cabinet had responded positively to the proposal.
According to Sullivan, the next step will be talks between Qatar and Egypt with Hamas.
“This work is already underway,” he said.
Israeli media reported late Sunday that Israel would send a delegation to Doha on Monday.
According to Haaretz
newspaper
, this delegation will be made up of lower-level officials who will be responsible for clarifying more technical and administrative aspects of the agreement, but will not have the authority to make major decisions.
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According to Netanyahu, Israel wants an agreement to free the Hamas hostages
On
CBS
' "Face the Nation," Netanyahu said Israel wanted an agreement to free the hostages.
It is hoped that Hamas will give up its "crazy demands", which include a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and negotiations for a permanent end to the war in Israel.
He also said Israel plans to attack Rafah, a town in the southern Gaza Strip that is crowded with displaced civilians, even if a ceasefire agreement is reached.
The United States has warned Israel against a large-scale military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to evacuate and protect civilians.
“We cannot leave the last Hamas stronghold without taking care of them;
Of course we have to do that,” Netanyahu said.
“If we have an agreement, it will be a little delayed.
But it will happen.
If we don't have an agreement, we will do it anyway.
It has to be done."
He said he would reconvene the war cabinet early this week to approve "operational action plans" for Rafah, including the "evacuation of civilians" to an area north of Rafah.
Asked about the Rafah operation on
NBC
's "Meet the Press," Sullivan said the United States has not yet seen a plan from Israel that addresses the White House's humanitarian concerns.
“We have made it clear that we do not believe that an operation, a major military operation, should take place in Rafah until there is a clear and executable plan to protect these civilians, keep them safe and feed them clothe and house,” he said.
“And we haven’t seen any such plan.”
What else you should know about the situation in the Israel-Gaza war
Israeli forces said they had completed hostilities at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.
Israeli forces said they targeted Hamas militants and arrested about 200 people.
Earlier this month, Gaza's health ministry said the days-long raid on the hospital had collapsed medical services and swept away scores of people, including patients and doctors, in mass arrests.
The United States and Britain carried out new strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday night, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The attacks are the latest attempt to disrupt Houthi attacks on merchant ships transiting the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden.
According to the group, these actions are a response to Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.
The last time the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was able to deliver food aid to the northern Gaza Strip was on January 23, the organization's head, Philippe Lazzarini, said on social media on Sunday.
Warning of impending famine, he called the crisis a "man-made disaster" and said: "Our calls to send food aid have been rejected."
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, at least 29,692 people have been killed and 69,879 injured in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack and says 240 soldiers have been killed since the military operation began in Gaza.
To the authors
Niha Masih
is a reporter in The Washington Post's Seoul bureau, where she covers breaking news from the United States and around the world.
She was previously the Post's correspondent in India, where she covered the rise of majoritarian nationalism, the conflict in Kashmir, the Covid crisis and digital surveillance of citizens.
Leo Sands
is a reporter and breaking news editor in the London bureau of The Washington Post, covering events around the world.
Silvia Foster-Frau
writes for The Washington Post about the nation's evolution into a predominantly multicultural society, exploring changing racial, ethnic and cultural demographics and telling the stories of Americans affected by and part of this change.
Mariana Alfaro
is a reporter for The Washington Post's political news team.
The native of El Salvador has been working for the post office since 2019.
Previously, Mariana interned at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Insider, and The Texas Tribune.
Masih reported from Seoul, Sands from London, Alfaro and Foster-Frau from Washington and Soroka from Tel Aviv.
Shayna Jacobs in Washington also contributed to this report.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 26, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.