Mediator Qatar’s foreign ministry has said that negotiations in Doha for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal were in their “final stages”, AFP reports.

“We do believe that we are at the final stages … certainly we are hopeful that this would lead very soon to an agreement,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a news conference, adding that “until there is an announcement … we shouldn’t be over-excited about what’s happening right now”.

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