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.)

A gangster based in the United Kingdom is likely behind the sensational murder of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Nafe Singh Rathi, sources said, adding that three more individuals have been named in the FIR.

On Sunday, at a railway crossing in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, a Toyota Fortuner carrying Mr Rathi came to an unexpected halt, only to be ambushed by a mysterious i20 car. A cinematic scene ensued as five men emerged, unleashing a hail of bullets upon the SUV. The 66-year-old Mr Rathi and a loyal aide were killed, while two others fought for survival in critical condition. The assailants spared the life of Mr Rathi’s nephew, who was driving the vehicle, instructing him to inform the family about the incident.

The police are now on a manhunt for the elusive i20 which swiftly fled the scene following the attack.

The three new individuals mentioned in the FIR are Virendra Rathi, Sandeep Rathi, and Rajpal Sharma, bringing the total to 15 suspects – 10 known, including former BJP MLA Naresh Kaushik, and five unknown. According to police sources, two out of the three newly named individuals have political affiliations.

The investigation has taken an international turn with suspicions pointing to the involvement of a notorious gangster based in the UK. This gangster has allegedly orchestrated political murders in the past, including that of a BJP leader in Delhi a few months ago. Haryana Police will question a close associate of the UK-based gangster today currently incarcerated in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Delhi Police’s Probe

Delhi Police suspects the potential involvement of sharpshooters associated with jailed gangsters, Lawrence Bishnoi and Kala Jathedi, in the brutal killing of the INLD leader.

The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch and Special Cell, working collaboratively on interstate gangsters’ networks, have visited the crime scene in Jhajjar. At least five teams from the Special Cell and four from the Crime Branch have been actively coordinating with their counterparts in Haryana to probe the murders.

The possibility of the involvement of other foreign-based gangsters, such as Himanshu Bhau, suspected to be residing in Portugal, is not being ruled out.

“It is suspected that gang members of jailed gangsters might have taken the contract to eliminate Rathi for money,” said a Delhi police official, as quoted by news agency PTI.

The gangs associated with Bishnoi and Jathedi are known for engaging in extortion and contract killings across Delhi-NCR, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan.

The execution-style employed in Mr Rathi’s murder resembles previous incidents, particularly the killing of Rajput Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, suggesting a common modus operandi. The shooters associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi-Godly Brar gang reportedly used foreign-made Zigana and Beretta pistols in both cases.

CBI To Step In?

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Monday announced in the state assembly that the investigation would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“If the House is only satisfied with a CBI probe, then I assure the members that we will hand over the case to the CBI,” Mr Vij said

The political fallout from the incident has been swift, with the opposition demanding a high court judge-monitored CBI probe into Mr Rathi’s murder. The incident, termed by the opposition as the state’s “first political murder,” has ignited a fierce debate on the adequacy of security measures provided to Mr Rathi, who had reportedly sought protection due to threats on his life.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar led the Haryana Assembly in paying tributes to the INLD chief on Monday, vowing to bring the culprits to justice.

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.)