The mediating country Qatar on Saturday announced a time for the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas to take effect the next day, setting off final preparations for a truce that much of the world hopes will end 15 months of destruction in Gaza. The deal should go into effect at 8:30 a.m. local time […]

At his seaside office complex in Doha on Wednesday evening, the Qatari prime minister thought he had a deal. Hamas’s negotiators, led by a burly former lawmaker, had left the prime minister’s office, having given up on an 11th-hour demand that was the last major obstacle to a cease-fire in Gaza after 466 days of […]

Mediators rushed on Wednesday to clinch a deal between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire that would release hostages held in Gaza, after more than a year of devastating war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave. Neither Israel nor Hamas has publicly endorsed the agreement, and Israeli […]

As Israeli and Hamas officials continued indirect talks on Monday for a cease-fire and hostage release deal, Hamas representatives indicated that the group had approved an Israeli list of 34 hostages to be released in the first stage of an agreement, conveying a sense of momentum. But the Israeli government quickly dampened any notion that […]