Quotes
We are not sure if it is hours or days or more,
one Israeli source told The Telegraph, as the White House said
I'm not making a promise or prediction, but it is there for the taking and we are going to work to make it happen,
Sullivan told reporters
Israel really wants to release the hostages and is working hard to secure a deal,
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a press conferenceThere is no room in hospitals to receive the wounded,
Bassal said
In the war between Israel and Hamas, we're on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition,
Biden said in a farewell speech at the State DepartmentThe current round of negotiations is the most serious and deep and has made significant progress,
a Palestinian official close to Hamas told AFP on condition of anonymityThey bombed schools, homes and even gatherings of people,
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFPNow is the time to intensify our efforts, using all available force to fully secure and cleanse the Gaza Strip,
he addedThere is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters
We are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line, finally after all this time,
he told MSNBC,The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,
Biden said in a speech to highlight his foreign policy achievementsI think there is a good chance we can close this ... the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal,
he saidWhen you put those two factors together, we believe that the time is right to get a deal and to have to close,
Sullivan saidIt's because the gaps have fundamentally narrowed down,
said Sullivan, Biden's top national security official
We’ve done a lot of work on that, and we haven’t waited to get to the ceasefire itself,
Blinken said
A moment of genuine integration in the region where Israel normalizes its relations with everyone, including Saudi Arabia, it’s integrated into a regional security architecture that further marginalizes and isolates Iran and betters the lives of people throughout the region,
Blinken saidLook, ... Iran is going to be faced with decisions of its own of how it wants to move forward, but I think the incoming administration would have an opportunity precisely because Iran’s on its back feet – the – it’s suffering economically in a terrible way. Its people, I think, are disputing so much of what the regime has done, particularly in meddling in the affairs of other countries throughout the region."
Blinken beganThis has been a very good partnership, and we hope that together we get this over the goal line,
he saidThe negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,
a Hamas official told Reuters on Monday, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter
It’s very clear that President Trump threatening Hamas and making it clear that there is going to be hell to pay is part of the reason why we’ve made progress on getting some hostages out,
Vice President-elect JD Vance said