William J. Burns, the CIA director, landed in Qatar on Wednesday to try to advance a deal between Israel and Hamas to finally end the war in Gaza and free the remaining hostages held there, amid rising optimism that an agreement could be coming together after months of fruitless negotiations.

Officials from countries involved in the talks say the two sides could be nearing a truce in the war that began with the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. A senior US official and another official familiar with the matter confirmed the visit by Burns, who has been the lead American negotiator, but spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy.

Over months of negotiations, hopes for a breakthrough have risen and fallen, each time with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the impasse. If an agreement is reached, it would be the first pause in the fighting since November 2023, when the two sides observed a week-long truce that saw the release of 105 hostages from Gaza and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

In a change from previous negotiations, both sides have generally refrained from leaking the details of the talks to the media.

Some analysts said they believed the blackout indicated that Israel and Hamas were more serious about an accord this time around.

According to officials familiar with the talks, mediators have floated a ceasefire beginning with a 60-day truce. During this phase, Hamas would release some of the 100 or so hostages still held in Gaza — some of them dead — in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Qatari and Egyptian mediators, who have brokered the talks alongside the US, hope the initial truce will continue into a permanent ceasefire.

Israel has demanded that its forces largely remain in two segments of Gaza: one, known as the Netzarim corridor, till central Gaza, splitting the northern and southern parts of the enclave; and the other, called the Philadelphi corridor, along the territory’s border with Egypt.

Hamas has previously demanded a swift and complete Israeli exit from the enclave. But the group is now willing to tolerate an extended Israeli presence in parts of those two corridors as long as Israel eventually withdraws, according to a person familiar with Hamas’s thinking.

New York Times News Service