US officials say Gaza ceasefire deal is in sight, the first sign of serious optimism in months

By Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder, Mike Schwartz, Lauren Kent and MJ Lee, CNN

Jerusalem (CNN) — American officials believe a ceasefire and hostages release deal in the Israel-Hamas war is now in sight, in what marks the first real sign of serious optimism inside the Biden administration in months, sources familiar with the issue told CNN.

While they continued to emphasize that officials will remain cautious until the negotiations produce a final deal to end the Gaza conflict, as of Monday, the sources said US officials believe a ceasefire agreement could very well be announced in the forthcoming last days of President Joe Biden’s time in office.

Other sources told CNN that Israel, Hamas and the mediators were working through the final elements of an emerging deal.

“Now the final draft is being discussed by both parties, and each party is informing the mediators of its position,” a Hamas official told CNN.

Another source said that “all the big blocks (to a deal) have been resolved.”

US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told CNN earlier on Monday that “there has been significant progress made.”

“I am not going to sit here and make predictions – this has been a long time coming,” Finer said. “Fundamentally, we believe there is progress being made. There is a deal on the table that Hamas should accept.”

It comes as a Hamas official said Monday morning that the group is “very close to an agreement” with Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also announced some progress, saying Monday that Israel is working hard to reach a deal in the ongoing negotiations being hosted in the Qatari capital of Doha, and that “progress was made.”

“Israel wants a hostage deal. Israel is working with our American friends in order to achieve a hostage deal, and soon we will know whether the other side wants the same thing,” Saar said in a news conference in Jerusalem.

Several sticking points remain, however, the Hamas official told CNN.

They include Hamas’ demands that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip of land along the Egypt-Gaza border, and commit to a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary halt to the military operations launched in the wake of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Disagreement also remains over an Israeli-proposed buffer zone inside Gaza to run along the strip’s eastern and northern borders with Israel. The official said that Hamas wants the buffer zone to return to the pre-October 7 size of 300-500 meters (330-545 yards) from the border line, while Israel is requesting a much larger 2,000-meter depth.

“We believe this means that 60 km (37 miles) of the Gaza Strip will remain under their control, and displaced people will not return to their homes,” the official said.

Beyond those key demands, the Hamas official said that negotiators were hammering out specific details of the release of Palestinian prisoners and maps covering the areas from which Israeli forces would withdraw.

The Hamas official told CNN earlier that Israel’s response to Hamas’ sticking points for a deal has been “mostly positive.”

Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees, told CNN separately on Monday that he is traveling to Doha to advise negotiators on the list of detainees to be released “in the event the deal materializes.”

The optimistic tone was tempered though by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said Monday that the potential ceasefire-hostage deal would be a “catastrophe” for Israel’s national security. In a post on X, Smotrich described it as a “surrender deal” that would include releasing “terrorists” and “dissolving” the war’s achievements.

On Monday, 10 members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party sent a letter to the Israeli prime minister expressing concern about a potential agreement and reiterating three “red lines” should not be crossed. The Knesset members argued that Israel should not have to rely on others for security, all hostages must be returned and a mass return to northern Gaza should be prevented in any framework for a deal.

Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Sunday, their first publicly announced call since October, about the progress in negotiations.

Netanyahu, who met with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Saturday, is facing pressure from both the current and incoming US administrations to reach a deal.

Witkoff and Biden’s Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, who are both currently in the region, have been working together in recent days with mediators to try to resolve some of the last remaining sticking points to get to the ceasefire deal, sources told CNN. The two US envoys have also had joint phone calls with Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been in close consultation with top Israeli officials, including David Barnea, and Qatar’s prime minister, on Monday, per sources.

A source with knowledge of the ceasefire-hostage talks told CNN Monday that Trump is the incentive for Israel to strike a deal with Hamas. The source said Netanyahu “wants to remain close to Trump.”

“There’s a bigger picture here that he (Netanyahu) wants to achieve. And you know, remaining on track with Trump is important. That’s the thing,” the source added. They said that even if there is no deal by January 20, when Trump will be sworn in as president, then “we have to get to a framework” by that date.

On Monday US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan struck an optimistic tone, saying the two sides were inching closer to a potential deal and that it could “get done this week.”

“I’m not making a promise or a prediction, but it is there for the taking, and we are going to work to make it happen,” he told reporters at the White House Monday.

Finer said Monday that some remaining differences that were present in recent weeks “have been resolved or narrowed.”

Gazans hope for a ceasefire

Since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the death toll from Israeli military action in Gaza has risen to 46,584, with 109,731 people injured, according to the latest daily report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The report added that a number of victims are still under the rubble and on roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.

Meanwhile, a peer-reviewed study by researchers from a leading health research university in the UK found the number of people killed in Gaza is significantly higher than the figure reported by authorities in the enclave.

On Monday, Israeli strikes on northern Gaza killed more than 40 people and injured dozens, a Gaza civil defense spokesperson said. “The bombing and killing have not stopped since dawn today,” Mahmoud Basal told CNN.

Gazans who spoke to CNN on Monday said they hoped negotiations could end the war, but they fear announcements of progress towards a deal are all “empty” promises.

“Every time they say there are negotiations, we hear nothing but their failure,” said Khan Younis resident Abdul Rahman Salama, who spoke to CNN as he was trying to recover items from the rubble of his destroyed house. “The destruction is unreal. I hope the war stops as suddenly as it started; it will end suddenly, but the negotiations are all empty talk — lies upon lies.”

Ahmad Salama, another man displaced from Khan Younis, said: “My family hopes that the negotiations will succeed so the war will end, and we can return to safety, and the fear and terror will stop, and we won’t have to flee from one place to another with the children and my mother again.”

The war in Gaza has also exacted a heavy toll on Israeli forces. At least 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Gaza in the past week, according to the Israeli military.

CNN’s Lucas Lilieholm, Nadeen Ebrahim and Tareq Al Hilou contributed to this report.

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