TEL AVIV, December 20. /TASS/. Mediators continue to make progress on a Gaza ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages between Israel and the radical Palestinian group Hamas, but it will likely be weeks before a final decision is made, an unnamed Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

"The trajectory is good, but there are still major issues to be negotiated followed by difficult political decisions that both sides will need to make," the diplomat said.

Israel's Channel 12 TV reported on Thursday, citing a local official, that during the ongoing talks in Qatar "further progress had been made in the past day toward bridging gaps on some of the most controversial issues." "We are in the final stages of reconciliation," the Israeli official pointed out, adding that the sides would know in the coming days whether or not there would be an agreement.

The Jerusalem Post reported earlier that "significant progress" had been made in talks between Israel and Hamas. This was confirmed to the newspaper by two officials familiar with the matter, who said an agreement could be reached within a month.

Several rounds of negotiations to free Hamas hostages over the past year have stalled. The parties have failed to reach a continuation of an agreement reached in late November 2023, which freed 105 hostages following a week-long ceasefire. Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023 are still in Gaza. Over the past 14 months, the Israeli military has rescued eight hostages and recovered the bodies of 38.