For the first time in months, a new ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas may be within reach.
US President Donald Trump, speaking from New Jersey on Sunday, said there's a "good chance" of a deal "during the coming week".
Hamas, meanwhile, says it has submitted a response "in a positive spirit" to the US proposal for a 60-day truce.
Talks are currently under way in Doha, with negotiators from Qatar, Egypt and the US working to finalise the details with both sides.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise, with at least 40 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours and five Israeli soldiers confirmed dead on Tuesday.
Since the war began, an estimated 57,645 Palestinians and 1,983 Israelis have been killed.
While the Doha talks continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington for meetings with President Trump.
But what exactly is this proposed truce working towards, and for how long?
What does Israel want?
While the full details have yet to be released, media reports have given some indication of what to expect.
Any agreement from the Israeli side is likely to hinge on the further release of hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023.
Around 250 hostages were taken by the militant group at the outset of the war. Today, it’s believed that about 20 are still alive inside Gaza, with a further 30 bodies also being held by the group according to the Israeli government.
Reuters reported over the weekend that the truce proposal includes the return of 10 living hostages over the proposed 60-day ceasefire period, along with the bodies of 18 others who died in captivity.
Some analysts in Israel say the deal's structure, which includes only half of the remaining living hostages, reflects the domestic political pressure Mr Netanyahu is under.
Far-right members of his coalition have threatened to bring down the government if he agrees to a permanent ceasefire, with some reports suggesting he framed the truce as a tactical pause with fighting to resume once the 60 days is up.
To counter this, Israeli opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz have offered to support the government from the outside to ensure a ceasefire deal goes through, giving the Prime Minister a safety net.
What does Hamas want?
Hamas is pushing for a permanent end to fighting, for the United Nations to resume the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and for Israeli forces to withdraw to the positions within Gaza it held before its renewed offensive in March, which has seen the Israeli military again take up positions in most of the enclave.
Hamas is also using the remaining hostages as leverage for a permanent ceasefire, refusing to release them without a credible path to end the war.
If an agreement can be reached, the truce would reportedly begin with Hamas releasing eight living hostages on day one, while Israel would release an as yet unspecified number of Palestinian detainees and withdraw from certain areas in northern Gaza.
Around 10,800 Palestinians are now believed to be detained in Israel, up from the 9,619 widely reported at the end of last year.
Approximately one third are what are called administrative detainees.
They have not been charged with an offence, and have no listed legal case, but are held by order of a military officer based on undisclosed evidence that is not revealed to them or their lawyers.
Among the total detainees, there are an estimated 50 women and more than 450 children.
The proposed plan also calls for both sides to begin negotiations towards a permanent ceasefire as soon as the initial truce takes effect, according to reporting from CNN.
Gaza aid distribution
At the start of the ceasefire, humanitarian aid, including from the UN and other organisations, would begin entering Gaza immediately, as it did during the previous truce in January. No aid at all entered Gaza between 2 March and mid-May.
The distribution of aid in Gaza is currently being overseen by the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It is unclear if the group would continue to operate there during the ceasefire.
The GHF has been subject to intense scrutiny since it began delivering and distributing aid on 26 May, in a bid to bypass the typical process of aid distribution done through the UN.
Since the GHF took over aid distribution in Gaza, Palestinians desperately seeking food have been killed almost daily by Israeli forces near GHF distribution centres, according to monitoring groups as well as the Hamas-run administration in Gaza.
UNRWA has warned that the number of aid distribution sites in Gaza has gone from 400 to just four sites under the GHF-led model. They describe the GHF sites as "militarised" and along with other groups have demanded a return to UN-led aid coordination "based on international humanitarian law inclusive of UNRWA".
No independent journalists have been permitted to enter Gaza since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, making it difficult to verify information emerging from the enclave about incidents at the GHF sites.
There have been more than 20 reported live fire incidents near GHF sites since the group began operating in late May, Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says almost 600 people have been killed and nearly 4,000 injured while trying to access food near the sites.
IDF troops maintain an external perimeter around the sites, with contractors and others enforcing access to zones within that area.
In a report published by Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on 27 June, unnamed IDF soldiers described the areas around GHF aid delivery points as a "killing field".
Soldiers described being instructed to shoot or fire shells in the direction of unarmed crowds near food distribution sites, even when no threat was present.
The IDF said it was investigating the claims but denied that its troops were being ordered to open fire on civilians.
On 1 July, over 240 humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International, called for GHF to be shut down, citing "routine" shootings and "repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law".
Beyond the deadly risks involved in collecting aid, the overall volume of food and assistance entering Gaza remains drastically insufficient, according to UN agencies.
Statistics published by the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) show that since 21 May over 1,200 trucks carrying 18,247 metric tonnes of food have entered Gaza.
This is "a tiny fraction of what a population of over two million people need to survive," according to the WFP, adding that at least 100 trucks per day are required to meet the basic needs of the population.
Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is part of Israel's defence ministry, reported that only 1,833 food trucks entered Gaza in the entire month of June, mostly via Kerem Shalom.
UNRWA has said that between 500-600 trucks per day entered Gaza before 7 October, with food which was needed to meet basic humanitarian needs.
The quantity of aid entering Gaza now is vastly insufficient, it says.
Under the proposed ceasefire deal, the aid would likely return to levels seen during the previous truce in January, when between 600 and 900 trucks a day were permitted to enter Gaza.
Beyond the proposed deal
While not reported as part of the ceasefire discussions, Israel's far right defence minister has also announced plans to begin build construction of a "humanitarian city" in Rafah, a city near the Egyptian border, during the proposed 60-day truce.
Rafah has been largely destroyed over recent years during military operations.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told Israeli reporters on Monday that he had instructed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare a plan to establish the "city", which would "eventually house the entire population of the Gaza Strip".
The Katz plan involves transferring 600,000 Palestinians, mostly from the Al-Muwasi coastal area, into this new zone, following security screenings. Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave, according to Israeli media reports. Mr Katz added that four new aid distribution sites would also be set up there.
He also reportedly reiterated his desire to encourage Palestinians to "voluntarily emigrate" from Gaza, stating that the plan "should be fulfilled". This was echoed by Mr Netanyahu on Monday, during talks with President Trump in the US.
"If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," Mr Netanyahu said.
Legal experts and human rights organisations have condemned the plan and say it's a prelude to the evacuation of Palestinians in Gaza to neighbouring countries.
One of Israel's leading human rights lawyers Michael Sfard told the Guardian that Mr Katz had "laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity. It is nothing less than that."
"It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip."
"When you drive someone out of their homeland that would be a war crime, in the context of a war. If it’s done on a massive scale like he plans, it becomes a crime against humanity."
The UN had previously warned that "any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited" under international law.
How have previous truces fared?
Throughout the 21-month conflict in Gaza, there have been several periods of ceasefire.
A week-long ceasefire in November 2023 saw around 105 hostages freed from Gaza, with Israel releasing more than 240 Palestinian prisoners in return.
The war in Gaza resumed the following month.
In May 2024, Hamas announced it had accepted a three-phase ceasefire deal that would see the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, followed by a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
But Israel said it had not agreed to the terms, and within days, launched a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Donald Trump's re-election as US president helped usher in a new ceasefire, agreed on 15 January of this year.
It ran until March during which time 30 Israeli hostages and the bodies of 26 more were released as well as an estimated 1,400 Palestinian prisoners.
On 2 March, Israel blocked all humanitarian aid into Gaza, demanding that Hamas accept a US-backed plan to extend the ceasefire.
But the truce finally collapsed on 18 March, after Israel resumed airstrikes, accusing Hamas of stalling.
