US President Joe Biden said Monday he hoped a ceasefire in Gaza could start by the beginning of next week.

Amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, France and elsewhere have acted as go-betweens for Israel and Hamas, seeking a halt to the fighting and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

A deal could also include the exchange of dozens of hostages for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel. 

Biden was asked during a visit to New York when such an agreement might start, and answered, “My national security advisor tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet.”

“My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added.

Representatives from several parties, not including Gaza rulers Hamas, met in Paris over the weekend and “came to an understanding… about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire would look like,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN Sunday.

After the Paris meeting, Egyptian, Qatari and US “experts” met in Doha in recent days for talks also attended by Israeli and Hamas representatives, state-linked Egyptian media said, hoping to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A Hamas source told AFP that “some new amendments” were proposed on contentious issues, but “Israel did not present any substantive position on the terms of the ceasefire and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the troop withdrawal demand as “delusional,” and said that any ceasefire deal would only delay a military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from fighting elsewhere in Gaza. 

On Monday, an unnamed Israeli official told news site Ynet the “direction (of the talks) is positive,” and Israeli media reported that military and intelligence officials were headed to Qatar for further talks on a deal.

And Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani — whose country hosts Hamas leaders and helped broker a one-week truce in November — is due in Paris this week, the French presidency said.

Sheikh Tamim has met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha and discussed efforts “aimed at reaching an immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement” in Gaza, the official Qatar News Agency said.

Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 29,782 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the ministry. 

The war broke out after Hamas launched their unprecedented attack which killed 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Hamas also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

41 leaders for 56 seats have already been elected unopposed. The list includes former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan. For 15 seats, elections are due in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has fielded eight candidates and the Opposition Samajwadi Party three for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats, setting the stage for strong contest over one seat. The focus will be on how many first preference votes the candidate gets – the magic figure is 37.
The BJP is said to be banking on surplus votes from Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has joined the NDA in all but name. Leaders of the BJP have also claimed that at least 10 MLAs of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party are in touch with them. The SP – which is in alliance with the Congress — has staunchly denied it.
The BJP has fielded former Union minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, senior state leader Amarpal Maurya, former minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind) party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain. Its eighth candidate is Sanjay Seth — a former member of the Samajwadi Party and an industrialist.
The SP has fielded actor-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
In Karnataka, the ruling Congress shifted its MLAs to a private hotel on Monday to prevent undue influences — a situation that has seen multiple re-runs in the chequered politics of the state. State party chief and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has denied any possibility of cross-voting by the party MLAs.
In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP has forced a contest on the state’s single seat by fielding Harsh Mahajan against Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi. While the Congress has 40 MLAs to the BJP’s 25, the election will be seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by MLAs through the proportional representation process with the single transferable vote (STV) system. The MLAs have to list candidates in order of preference. Their first choice counts most — a candidate with the required number of first preference votes get elected, else the votes get transferred to their next choice. 
The ruling BJP holds 28 of the 56 seats and is expected to have at least 29 after the election. In Uttar Pradesh, INDIA bloc will gain one seat as the SP is expected to improve its tally from one to two seats 
Currently, the Rajya Sabha has a strength of 245. The term for Upper House MPs is six years, and elections are held every two years for 33 per cent of the seats.

India expects action against the culprits involved in last year’s attacks on its high commission in London and consulate in San Francisco as well as those involved in threatening the Indian diplomats in Canada, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said.

The external affairs minister said India had to suspend issuance of visas in Canada as its diplomats were repeatedly “threatened and intimidated in many ways” and we “got very little comfort from the Canadian system that time”.

In September last year, India temporarily suspended issuance of visas to the Canadian citizens, a move that came days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The visa services were resumed several weeks later.

India strongly rejected Trudeau’s allegations.

India has been asserting its “core issue” with Canada remained that of the space given to the separatists, terrorists and anti-India elements in that country.

“We expect the culprits in the attack in our consulate in San Francisco to be brought to book, we expect action against people who stormed into our high commission in London and we expect action against people who threatened our diplomats (in Canada),” Mr Jaishankar said at a summit organised by TV9 Network.

The Indian high commission in London was attacked by certain pro-Khalistani elements in March 19 last year while there was an attempted arson at the Indian Consulate in San Francisco in July.

The Indian diplomats faced threats in Canada in September.

“We had to suspend issuance of visas in Canada because our diplomats were not safe going to work. Our diplomats were repeatedly threatened. They were intimidated in many ways and we got very little comfort from the Canadian system that time,” Mr Jaishankar said.

“We reached a stage when as a minister, I could not risk exposing the diplomats to the kind of violence which was very clearly prevalent in Canada at that time. That part of it has been rectified. Today, our visa operations are pretty much normal,” he added.

Mr Jaishankar said the situation has improved since then.

To a question on the space given to the Khalistani elements in Canada, he cited instances of throwing of smoke bombs into the Indian missions in that country.

“They (Canada) keep telling us that we are a democracy. There is freedom of speech and, therefore, people say these things,” Mr Jaishankar said.

“Freedom of speech cannot extend to intimidating diplomats who are doing their duty. Throwing smoke bombs to embassy and consulates, advocating violence and separatism against a friendly state is not freedom of speech, this is misuse of freedom of speech,” he added.

Mr Jaishankar said the culprits involved in these attacks must be brought to book.

“In the UK, we actually saw our high commission being attacked by mobs and honestly we did not get the kind of protection which we expected to get,” Mr Jaishankar said.

“Things have improved in the UK. We find today a much firmer response in Australia and in the US,” he added.

“If a receiving state does not investigate and take action against someone who attacks our embassy and consulates, there is a message in it. I do not think it is good for any of these countries to send that kind of message for their own reputation,” Mr Jaishankar said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)