Qatar, Egypt, US invite Israel, Hamas to resume Gaza ceasefire talks

“I think the idea here is that they’re going to go back to the table, come August 15, and both Hamas and Israel would be looking at hammering the details,” he said.

Bishara said many details are still unclear, including which Palestinian prisoners and captives held in Gaza would be released in the first phase of the deal – and how many.

But said the mediating nations believe they “have a good framework agreement now for a three-stage ceasefire agreement”.

“I think this is more or less a call for action, a call for urgency – to act quicker than before.”

Ariel Gold, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a US-based non-violence group, said Thursday’s statement is not yet cause for celebration.

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“We have in many ways been here before,” Gold told Al Jazeera, noting that President Biden’s administration has “many times [said] that we are at the final stretch” of negotiations.

Gold said Biden, who has provided staunch military and diplomatic support to Israel amid the war, should make it clear to Netanyahu that there will be “a real, definitive consequence for refusing this ceasefire deal”.

For months, Palestinian rights advocates in the US have urged Biden to stop sending weapons to Israel as the war drags on.

Rami Khouri, a professor at the American University of Beirut, said the timing of the statement is likely a reflection of the pressures Biden is facing.

“Why the 15th?” Khouri asked, referencing the date in the joint statement to restart negotiations. “I think it’s because the two most desperate people in the world now for a ceasefire, other than the Palestinians, are Kamala Harris and Genocide Joe Biden, as he is well known in the US.”