Laith Al-Jnaidi
14 January 2025•Update: 14 January 2025
AMMAN, Jordan
Jordanian King Abdullah II discussed efforts to reach a Gaza cease-fire agreement on Tuesday with Steve Witkoff, US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy.
“The first and immediate step to reach comprehensive regional calm is to end the Israeli war on Gaza,” Abdullah said during a phone call with Witkoff as cited by a royal court statement.
Discussions also highlighted “the need to bolster the international humanitarian response in Gaza,” the statement said.
Qatar said early Tuesday that Gaza cease-fire negotiations are in their "final details" and that announcing an agreement is “imminent.”
“A draft agreement has been handed to both Hamas and Israel and major obstacles on key contentious issues between the two sides have been addressed,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a press conference in Doha.
Palestinian resistance group Hamas also confirmed that a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement is in “its final stages.”
Israel has continued its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 46,600 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala
