Hostage negotiations to free many of the 200-plus people believed to be held by extremists in Gaza have “reached a very sensitive stage” as some of the key areas of disagreement preventing a deal have “narrowed,” suggesting a breakthrough could be imminent but not certain, a top White House official said Sunday.
“These talks have clearly reached a very sensitive stage,” the deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “We’re following this minute by minute, hour by hour, and have been over a number of weeks. And this is an incredibly high priority for all of us in this administration up to and including, certainly, the president.
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Amid new reporting that an agreement is on the verge of being struck for dozens of captives to be released in exchange for a pause in the fighting sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, Finer said progress was being made but cautioned that the work was not done.
“[S]ome of the gaps have now narrowed. Some of the issues that were at odds have now been closed out. But we are not finished — there is not yet a deal in place. And I think it would be premature to conclude that this is inevitable given how close we have come in the past,” he said.
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