The terms of a deal between Israel and Hamas for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release are being finalised, a Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC.
It comes after White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said a ceasefire and hostage deal could be reached “this week”.
An Israeli official also told Reuters that talks were at an “advanced stage” with a deal possible in “hours, days or more”.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sundayand with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar – who is brokering the talks – on Monday.
Sullivan said Biden should also speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The latest developments come as Netanyahu faces fierce opposition to a potential deal from his ruling coalition. Ten right-wing members, including some from Netanyahu's own Likud party, sent him a letter opposing the truce.
The Palestinian official told the BBC that representatives of Hamas and Israel held indirect talks in the same building on Monday.
Revealing some potential details of the agreement, the official said that “detailed technical discussions have taken considerable time.”
The two sides agreed that Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the deal, after which Israel would begin withdrawing its troops from the populated areas.
Seven days later, Hamas would release four more hostages, and Israel would allow displaced people in the south to return to the north, but only on foot along the coastal road. Cars, animal-drawn carts and trucks will be allowed to pass through a passage near Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team.
The agreement includes provisions for Israeli forces to remain in the Philadelphia Corridor and maintaining an 800-meter buffer zone along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase, which will last 42 days.
Israel also agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including approximately 190 who were serving sentences of 15 years or more. In return, Hamas will release 34 hostages.
Negotiations for the second and third phases of the agreement will begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defense agency said a wave of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City on Monday killed more than 50 people.
“They bombed schools, homes and even crowds,” civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the reports. Separately, five soldiers were said to have been killed on Monday in the northern Gaza Strip.
The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken to Gaza as hostages.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 46,500 people have been killed during the war.
Israel says 94 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are believed to be dead, as well as four other Israelis who were kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.