US puts pressure on Hamas to clinch ceasefire 'deal on table'

The path to a ceasefire in Gaza is “straightforward and there’s a deal on the table”, a senior US official has said, as mediators return to Egypt hoping to reach an agreement before Ramadan begins in a week.

The unidentified official was speaking to the Reuters news agency ahead of the talks in Cairo, billed as the final hurdle to a six-week ceasefire.

The US said a deal has already been “more or less accepted” by Israel and is waiting for approval by Hamas militants.

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“The path to a ceasefire right now literally at this hour is straightforward, and there’s a deal on the table,” the unnamed US official said.

“There’s a framework deal.

“The onus right now is on Hamas.”

But after the Hamas delegation arrived, a Palestinian official said the deal was “not yet there”, and on the Israeli side there was doubt over whether its delegation would even attend the latest round of talks.

Israeli officials reportedly boycotted negotiations in Cairo on Sunday after Hamas rejected their demand for a complete list naming hostages who are still alive. Hamas also reportedly wants a permanent ceasefire to be part of any deal.

Previously on Saturday night, it was reported that the duration of the initial pause, a phase expected to last about six weeks, had been agreed upon.

If the sides can reach a deal, it would be the first substantial truce since the war began on 7 October last year, when Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages.

A previous pause, when dozens of hostages were exchanged for prisoners, lasted barely a week in November.

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, and the UN says a quarter of Gaza’s population is on the brink of starvation.

A ceasefire would see dozens more Hamas-held hostages released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, and the path would be cleared for a much-needed boost in aid deliveries to Gaza.

Fighting would stop in time to prevent Israel’s planned assault on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are blocked in against the enclave’s border fence.

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But it would not necessarily bring a permanent end to the war – Hamas’s main demand – and it would not address the fate of hostages not covered by a deal to free women, children, the elderly and injured.

Mediators have said these questions could be answered later but a Hamas source told Reuters they were still hoping for a “package deal”.

It comes a day after the US carried out its first airdrop of aid into Gaza, in a joint operation with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

Meanwhile, after the sinking in the Red Sea of the cargo ship the Rubymar, which was hit by a Houthi missile strike and previously reported to be UK-owned – invoking fears of potential environmental disaster – Yemen’s Houthi fighters namechecked George Galloway in a message to Rishi Sunak.

Senior Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al Houthi wrote on X that the British prime minister had a “chance to salvage” the vessel, if he sends “a letter of guarantee… signed by George Galloway, that the relief trucks agreed upon at that time would enter Gaza”.