Israel negotiators express ‘cautious optimism’ on Gaza hostage deal

Negotiations continued on a day when at least 18 members of the same family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of the destroyed building after the airstrike (EPA)

Israel’s negotiating team has expressed “cautious optimism” on the possibility of advancing a deal on hostages in Gaza.

The assessment was announced in a statement on Saturday from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

“The team expressed cautious optimism to the prime minister regarding the possibility of advancing a deal based on the latest American proposal (which is based on the May 27th framework),” the statement read.

The prime minister’s office added that it hoped heavy pressure on Hamas from the US and international mediators will remove its opposition to the American proposal and allow for a breakthrough.

On Friday, US president Joe Biden indicated that he is now more optimistic about a ceasefire, after days of discussions involving the US, Egypt and Qatar.

“As of an hour ago, we’re still in play. I’m optimistic. It’s still far from over. Just a couple more issues, I think we’ve got a shot,” he told reporters.

But Hamas’s spokesman in Lebanon Dr Ahmad Abdulhadi told Sky News earlier on Saturday: “The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements.

“The mediators told us that the disagreed points haven’t been solved and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu added more conditions on it and made it even more complicated.”

Mediation efforts continued on a day when an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 people from the same family in Gaza, including a number of young children.

The strike during the early hours of Saturday morning hit a house and an adjacent warehouse sheltering people at the entrance of the town of Zawaida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

The attack came days after the Hamas-run health ministry in the besieged enclave announced the death toll had surpassed 40,000 since the war started after the 7 October attacks inside Israel.

The mediation efforts are aimed not just at securing the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages who have been held inside Gaza since the Hamas atrocity, but at ending the fighting that has devastated the region.

It is hoped a ceasefire will reduce the regional tensions that have threatened to explode into a broader war amid fears that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon will attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of senior commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

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