AFTER months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas appear to be moving closer to a ceasefire 14 months into Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Hamas described today’s peace talks in Doha, Qatar, as “serious and positive,” and said in a statement that a Gaza ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange could be possible if Israel stopped setting new conditions.

The White House also said that it was cautiously optimistic about the talks.

US national security communications adviser John Kirby told Fox News today: “We believe — and the Israelis have said this — that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism.

“We’ve been in this position before where we weren’t able to get it over the finish line.”

In a key concession, Hamas officials say they are prepared to show more “flexibility” on the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that a deal is closer than ever.

However, Mr Katz struck a more aggressive tone on social media today, saying: “After we defeat Hamas’s military and governmental power in Gaza, Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action, just as it did in Judea and Samaria” — ie the occupied West Bank.  

Hamas’s changing sentiment appears to be the result of several factors.

Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hamas over the course of the war.

The group is more isolated after Hezbollah’s ceasefire with Israel, and Iran, a key backer of both militant groups, has suffered a number of setbacks, highlighted by the downfall of its close ally, Syria’s Bashar l-Assad.

According to Egyptian and Hamas officials, the agreement would take place in phases and include a halt in fighting, an exchange of captive Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in aid to the largely destroyed Gaza Strip. Israel says Hamas is holding 100 hostages — more than one-third of whom are believed to be dead.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on Gaza City today killed at least eight people from the same family, most of them women and children, Palestinian medics said.

Among the bodies recovered from the rubble were a father and his three children, and the children’s grandmother, according to a casualty list.