Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd while Red Cross vehicles come to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

One Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City killed 18 people as Palestinians await the start of the ceasefire on Sunday.

The Gaza Strip ceasefire should begin on Sunday as planned, despite the need for negotiators to tie up a "loose end" at the last minute, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.

If successful, the cease-fire deal would cap over a year of stop-start talks and lead to the biggest release of Israeli hostages since the early days of the conflict, when Hamas freed about half of its prisoners in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees held by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending the director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency to ceasefire negotiations in Qatar in a sign of progress in talks on the war in Gaza

A source familiar with the negotiations in Doha told AFP there had been "significant progress ... territory's health ministry that the United Nations says are reliable. - Gaza City pounded - Even as intense diplomatic efforts continued towards a truce ...

The complex accord emerged Wednesday after months of mediation by Qatar, Egypt & the US. Israeli bombardment, especially in Gaza City, killed 32 people hours later, medics say.

Qatar on Monday presented Israel and Hamas with a final draft of a deal to end the Gaza war, following a midnight breakthrough in talks attended by

DOHA/CAIRO (Reuters) -Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final ... including five killed in an Israeli strike at a Gaza City school sheltering displaced families. For the last several months, fighting has been particularly intense along the northern edge ...

Rockets fired from Gaza and intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system over Israeli skies are seen from Gaza City, on May 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File) DOHA, Qatar — Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip,

U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators shuttled between the Israeli and Hamas delegations in Doha on Tuesday, where officials said a deal to halt the war is near.