Hamas terrorists battled Israeli forces trying to push into Gaza’s largest refugee camp on Sunday, but despite the fighting U.S. and Israeli officials said a deal to free some of the hostages imprisoned in the besieged enclave was edging closer.

Hamas kidnapped about 240 people during the terror group’s deadly rampage into Israel on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to invade Gaza to destroy the Islamist terror group after several unfinished wars since 2007.

Israeli tanks and troops stormed into Gaza late last month and have since wrested control of large areas of the north and northwest and east around Gaza City, the military says.

But Hamas and local witnesses say terrorists are waging guerrilla-style war in pockets of the densely urbanized north, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.

Even as fighting raged on the ground, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas “in coming days”.

Reuters reported on Nov. 15 that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire that would help boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.

At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed but Israel was still negotiating details.

On Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a press conference in Doha that the main obstacles to a deal were now “very minor”, with mainly “practical and logistical” issues to surmount.

A White House official also said the “very complicated, very sensitive” negotiations were making progress.

“I believe we are closer than we have been in quite some time, maybe closer than we have been since the beginning of this process, to getting this deal done,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

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i24 News – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appealed to Muslim states with political ties with Israel to at least cut them for “a limited time”, state media reported on Sunday, weeks after he called for an Islamic oil and food embargo on Israel.

“Some Islamic governments have condemned Israeli crimes in assemblies while some have not. This is unacceptable,” Khamenei said before reiterating that the main task of Islamic governments should be to cut off Israel from energy and goods.

“Islamic governments should at least cut off political ties to Israel for a limited time,” Khamenei said.

During a joint summit between members of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in Saudi Arabia’s capital on November 11, Muslim states did not agree to impose wide-ranging sanctions on Israel, as requested by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

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i24 News – The body of 12-year-old Liel Hatzroni has finally been identified, according to an announcement on Sunday, almost a month and a half after being murdered by Hamas terrorists who invaded her home on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.

Liel’s remains were found by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority who had been called in to help locate and identify bodies, particularly those badly burned to the point of being nearly unrecognizable. The Hatzroni family was informed Saturday evening.

Terrorists entered the Hatzroni family home and kidnapped family members on October 7, who were then taken to a home of Be’eri resident Pessi Cohen, where the Hamas operatives murdered the family and set the house on fire.

The family had already on Wednesday organized a funeral ceremony for Liel and her great-aunt Ayala. Her twin brother Yanai and her grandfather Avia were buried on October 23. The family were all killed during the October 7 massacre.

Liel’s personal effects were buried at the time, in the absence of her body, which had not yet been identified. The family held the farewell ceremony, unable to wait any longer for the body.

“We will honor her departure from us with a farewell ceremony and by burying her belongings. My heart is broken and shattered, and refuses to believe it. It’s an ongoing nightmare, and I’m not sure we’ll wake up,” a close friend, Omri Shifroni, wrote on Facebook ahead of the ceremony.

The twins had been raised by their great-aunt Ayala and grandfather Avia since birth, after mother Shira suffered a stroke during a C-section birth. Kibbutz Be’eri had also helped as a community.

The post Forensic Team Identifies Body of 12-Year-Old Liel Hatzroni from Kibbutz Be’eri first appeared on Algemeiner.com.