(14 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
London, United Kingdom – 14 January 2025
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1. SOUNDBITE (English) Nomi Bar-Yaacov, Middle East expert and international peace negotiator:
"A deal is very likely to be sealed by the time President -elect Donald Trump takes office on the 20th of January. I think as he’s inaugurated, he would like to announce a ceasefire. And I would assume that they’re gearing towards the release of the first four hostages on the 20th of January."
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Nomi Bar-Yaacov, Middle East expert and international peace negotiator:
"What’s driving this forward is the inauguration of President Donald Trump. He would like to get a Nobel Peace Prize. He would like to end all the wars. He’s very clear cut about that goal. President Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for exceptional rhetoric, less action. And I think Donald Trump would like to get a prize for action – less rhetoric, more action. The issue here is the implementation of the deal."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Nomi Bar-Yaacov, Middle East expert and international peace negotiator:
"The deal is very complex. They had the choice and could have done a sort of what was known as an all for all deal whereby all the hostages would be released for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners. But the Israeli government chose to do this piecemeal. And this deal is divided into three stages. The first stage alone is spread over 42 days, and an awful lot can go wrong in 42 days. And there can be provocations on either side. Not to mention that beyond 42 days it gets even more complex. And we all know that if the endgame isn’t crystal clear and the end game has to be a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and paving the path down the line to two states that can live in security and peace. If the end goal isn’t clear and there’s no precise timeframe and implementation mechanism for for it, there will be a return to war." ++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Middle East expert Nomi Bar-Yaacov says a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is being driven by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In an interview with the Associated Press in London on Tuesday, Bar-Yaacov said Trump "would like to get a Nobel Peace Prize. He would like to end all the wars. He’s very clear cut about that goal."
With less than a week until the inauguration, Israel and Hamas have come under renewed pressure to halt the conflict.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, recently joined U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators in the Gulf country’s capital, Doha.
Trump said late Monday that a ceasefire was “very close.”
Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, two officials involved in the talks said Tuesday.
Mediator Qatar said Israel and the Palestinian militant group were at the “closest point” yet to sealing a deal.
However, Bar-Yaacov warned that implementing the deal is "very complex."
The three-phase agreement — based on a framework laid out by U.S. President Joe Biden and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council — would begin with the gradual release of 33 hostages over a six-week period, including women, children, older adults and wounded civilians in exchange for potentially hundreds of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.
The Israeli official said Israel assumes most of the 33 are still alive.
Details of the second phase still must be negotiated during the first.
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