Hamas's leader claims a peace agreement with Israel is near.

Gaza and Jerusalem — Even as the assault on Gaza continues and missiles are fired into Israel, Hamas's leader declared on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group is close to reaching a peace with Israel. Hamas officials are "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel, and the party has given its response to Qatari mediators, according to an adviser to Ismail Haniyeh. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the agreement is in its "final stages" and "closer than it has ever been."

According to the source, the agreement calls for Hamas to release roughly 50 civilian hostages as well as female and minor-aged Palestinian inmates from Israeli custody, as well as a multiday cease-fire. According to a Hamas spokesman, negotiations are focused on how long the truce will remain, how aid would be delivered to Gaza, and the details of the captive exchange. According to the spokesman, Issat el Reshiq, both sides would release women and children, and specifics would be published by Qatar, which is mediating the negotiations.

Israel has traditionally avoided commenting on the state of the Qatar-led discussions, but unidentified officials were quoted by Israel's Channel 12 and Channel 13 TV stations as stating conditions of an agreement might be struck "within hours," without providing any details. During its October 7 raid into Israel, Hamas seized approximately 240 hostages and killed 1,200 people.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president, Mirjana Spoljaric, met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to "advance humanitarian issues" related to the conflict, according to a statement issued by the Geneva-based organization. She also met with Qatari officials separately. The committee stated that it is not involved in negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages, but that as a neutral intermediary it is prepared "to facilitate any future release that the parties may agree upon." For days, rumors of a hostage deal have circulated.

On ABC's This Week on Sunday, Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog said he hoped for a resolution "in the coming days," while Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani stated the remaining sticking issues are "very minor." On Monday, US President Joe Biden and other US officials suggested an agreement was close.The Hamas attack on October 7, the bloodiest day in Israel's 75-year history, pushed Israel to invade Gaza in order to destroy the militant group that has ruled there since 2007.

Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run administration has documented the deaths of at least 13,300 Palestinians as a result of Israeli shelling, which has transformed much of Gaza, particularly its northern half, into a wasteland. Approximately two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced, with many more heading south on foot with belongings and children in their arms every day. The middle and southern areas of the enclave, where Israel has instructed residents to move, have also been targeted on a regular basis. A day and a night of rain and severe winter weather exacerbated the dismal situation in Gaza for the displaced, many of whom are sleeping on the streets or in makeshift tents. At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza at midnight on Tuesday, according to Gaza health officials. Israel did not respond immediately.

The already overcrowded Nuseirat area, which arose out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, lies just south of the wetlands that divide the strip and has been the arrival point for a large number of people fleeing the violence farther north. Despite an Israeli order to depart, it is thought that tens of thousands of civilians remain in the north. All of the hospitals there have suspended routine operations, while many are still housing patients and displaced Gazans. Israel claims that Hamas exploits hospitals as human shields, which both Hamas and the hospitals deny. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced plans to evacuate three hospitals in northern Gaza: al-Shifa, al-Ahli, and the Indonesian Hospital, but only as a last choice. "It's robbing the entire population of the north of the means to seek health[care]," WHO According to Gaza's health ministry, at least 12 Palestinians were killed and many were injured as Israeli tanks fired on the Indonesian-built hospital. Israel claims it fired back against fighters who started fire from within.

According to health officials, 700 patients and personnel were targeted by Israeli fire, but no fighters were present. Issam Nabhan, the chief of the nursing department, told Al Jazeera Live on Tuesday that patients are dying and that 60 bodies need to be buried in courtyards on the grounds. He ordered the evacuation of patients and personnel. spokeswoman Christian Lindmeier said at a press conference in Geneva. There is no oxygen available to the sufferers. Those who were on artificial respiration have all died. We address the free globe. The Indonesian hospital has devolved into a cemetery rather than a hospital."