Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent

The final round of talks started this morning.

I understand from a senior Palestinian official involved in the talks that they are putting in place the details for a final announcement.

We might hear an announcement soon from the Qataris, the main mediators in Doha, talking about the progress made in the talks.

We understand that all the issues have been solved and that it’s just the final touches and the technical details.

Negotiators from Hamas and Israel are in the same building, conducting indirect talks. They believe that a deal is imminent.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen's son, Sagui - an Israeli-American - was taken by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October.

Since his abduction, his wife Avital has given birth to their third child, a girl named Shahar.

Dekel-Chen, told the BBC's Newshour yesterday that he "lives in terror" every day because of his fears for Sagui.

He says that depending on developments, he will be accepting an invitation to attend the Trump inauguration, alongside his son's wife and two of their daughters.

"I want to believe that with the added pressure brought to bear by President-elect Trump that Prime Minister Netanyahu has come to the conclusion that it is in the best interests of Israel and himself, that at least from Israel's side, that we have gotten to 'yes'," he says.

He calls it "incomprehensible to the vast majority of Israelis" that after this war, people "still believe there is an advantage to continuing this fighting".

He says the lives of hostages and Gazans shouldn't be put at "peril" or "risk" any more.

• Read more about the lives of hostages taken by Hamas

Trump’s looming inauguration brings pressure of deal deadlinepublished at 09:16 Greenwich Mean Time 14 January

09:16 GMT 14 January

Tom Bateman
State Department correspondent

President Joe Biden said he had been on the phone to the key regional leaders pressing hard to close the deal.

He said an agreement could now be imminent.

"We're on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago, finally coming to fruition. I have learned, in many years of public service, to never, never, never, ever give up," he said in front of cabinet members and senior diplomats at the US State Department.

The framework of this agreement was set out by Biden nearly eight months ago, leading to numerous near-breakthrough moments, only for talks to falter with each side blaming the other for intransigence or upping their demands, while the war went on and its toll worsened.

Envoys for both Biden and Donald Trump are now in Doha - with the outgoing and incoming administrations attempting to take credit for the talks’ progress.

The reality is that Trump’s looming inauguration has brought the pressure of a meaningful deadline, beyond which there is much less certainty to both the Israeli and Hamas delegations that the current terms would remain in place with the United States acting as their guarantor.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent

More information now on how a potential ceasefire deal would look.

Revealing some potential details of the agreement, a Palestinian official told the BBC that "the detailed technical discussions took considerable time".

Both sides agreed that Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the agreement, after which Israel would begin withdrawing troops from populated areas.

Seven days later, Hamas would release four additional hostages, and Israel would allow displaced people in the south to return to the north, but only on foot via the coastal road.

Cars, animal-drawn carts, and trucks would be permitted to cross through a passage adjacent to 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 Philadelphi corridor and maintain an 800-metre buffer zone along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase, which will last 42 days.

Israel has also agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including approximately 190 who have been serving sentences of 15 years or more. In exchange, Hamas will release 34 hostages.

Negotiations for the second and third phases of the agreement would begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.

Good morning.

More than 15 months after the war in Gaza began, there are signs that Israel and Hamas could be on the brink of reaching a ceasefire agreement.

Negotiators are set to reconvene in Qatar today to try to finalise a deal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages.

A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told the BBC's Rushdi Abualouf that, for the first time in the war, delegations from Israel and Hamas are conducting indirect talks in the same building.

Hamas is also said to have dropped its condition for Israeli troops to leave the Strip.

US President Joe Biden said a deal was "on the brink" of coming to fruition, while an Israeli official also told news agency Reuters that a deal was possible in "hours, days or more".

Stay with us for updates and analysis.