Gaza ceasefire could be signed in coming days, source says, as Israeli strikes continue
Mediators narrowing gaps on most of the agreement's clauses: source
The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement's clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions that Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.
On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
"We need this agreement signed in Cairo between Hamas and the Israeli government so it will give us hope to end this war," Mahmoud Totah, 35, told CBC News in Khan Younis.
"The situation in Gaza is very bad. There is no light, no electricity and no food," he added.
"The Palestinian people can't breathe."
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, Nuseirat camp in 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. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.
Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of "ethnic cleansing" to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.
Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian Health Ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.
Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In the central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.
Ceasefire gains momentum
The U.S. administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before U.S. President Joe Biden leaves office next month.
In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that "all hell is going to break out" if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.
CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.
Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.
There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.
The war in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel says that attack killed some 1,200 people and that about 240 hostages were taken back to Gaza.
Israel's campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, Gaza's Health Ministry says, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
Speaking in Khan Younis, Dima Naseer, 20, said she's looking forward to the ceasefire and "a happy life and a new life."
Maram Al-Za'anin, 33, said she hoped the ceasefire would "end the suffering."
"I think Hamas should think carefully this time."
With files from Mohammed El Saife, CBC News