American officials believe a ceasefire and hostages release deal in the Israel-Hamas war is now in sight, in what marks the first real sign of serious optimism inside the Biden administration in months, sources familiar with the issue said.

While they continued to emphasize that officials will remain cautious until the negotiations produce a final deal to end the Gaza conflict, as of Monday, the sources said US officials believe a ceasefire agreement could very well be announced in the forthcoming last days of President Joe Biden’s time in office.

“I am not going to sit here and make predictions – this has been a long time coming,” Finer said. “Fundamentally, we believe there is progress being made. There is a deal on the table that Hamas should accept.”

It comes as a Hamas official said Monday morning that the group is “very close to an agreement” with Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also announced some progress, saying Monday that Israel is working hard to reach a deal in the ongoing negotiations being hosted in the Qatari capital of Doha, and that “progress was made.”

“Israel wants a hostage deal. Israel is working with our American friends in order to achieve a hostage deal, and soon we will know whether the other side wants the same thing,” Saar said in a news conference in Jerusalem.

They include Hamas’ demands that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip of land along the Egypt-Gaza border, and commit to a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary halt to the military operations launched in the wake of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Disagreement also remains over an Israeli-proposed buffer zone inside Gaza to run along the strip’s eastern and northern borders with Israel. The official said that Hamas wants the buffer zone to return to the pre-October 7 size of 300-500 meters (330-545 yards) from the border line, while Israel is requesting a much larger 2,000-meter depth.

“We believe this means that 60 km (37 miles) of the Gaza Strip will remain under their control, and displaced people will not return to their homes,” the official said.

Beyond those key demands, the Hamas official said that negotiators were hammering out specific details of the release of Palestinian prisoners and maps covering the areas from which Israeli forces would withdraw.

Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees, told CNN separately on Monday that he is traveling to Doha to advise negotiators on the list of detainees to be released “in the event the deal materializes.”

The optimistic tone was tempered though by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said Monday that the potential ceasefire-hostage deal would be a “catastrophe” for Israel’s national security. In a post on X, Smotrich described it as a “surrender deal” that would include releasing “terrorists” and “dissolving” the war’s achievements.

On Monday, 10 members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party sent a letter to the Israeli prime minister expressing concern about a potential agreement and reiterating three “red lines” should not be crossed. The Knesset members argued that Israel should not have to rely on others for security, all hostages must be returned and a mass return to northern Gaza should be prevented in any framework for a deal.

Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Sunday, their first publicly announced call since October, about the progress in negotiations.

Netanyahu, who met with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Saturday, is facing pressure from both the current and incoming US administrations to reach a deal.

Witkoff and Biden’s Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, who are both currently in the region, have been working together in recent days with mediators to try to resolve some of the last remaining sticking points to get to the ceasefire deal, sources told CNN. The two US envoys have also had joint phone calls with Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been in close consultation with top Israeli officials, including David Barnea, and Qatar’s prime minister, on Monday, per sources.

A source with knowledge of the ceasefire-hostage talks told CNN Monday that Trump is the incentive for Israel to strike a deal with Hamas. The source said Netanyahu “wants to remain close to Trump.”

“There’s a bigger picture here that he (Netanyahu) wants to achieve. And you know, remaining on track with Trump is important. That’s the thing,” the source added. They said that even if there is no deal by January 20, when Trump will be sworn in as president, then “we have to get to a framework” by that date.