Live: At least 137 people killed by Israel recovered from rubble in Rafah

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza:

• Israeli air strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday, with the most intense assaults targeting Gaza City and the northern regions.

• Hamas declared that ceasefire negotiations are “progressing well” after discussions with Qatar’s emir.

• The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society confirmed the death of a Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody.

• Physicians for Human Rights-Israel revealed that Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, is being held in Ofer prison, a military detention centre in the occupied West Bank.

• Lebanon’s Civil Defence announced the recovery of 10 bodies following Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

• The Hind Rajab Foundation urged Italy to arrest Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian, head of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), saying he is currently in Rome.

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- A Gaza ceasefire deal could be announced as early as Tuesday afternoon local time, Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reported on Monday. The Financial Times, citing its sources, reported that negotiators in Doha are "98 percent close" to sealing the agreement. Further rounds of "intensive talks" on a Gaza ceasefire will move from Doha to Cairo to apply "the final touches," sources have told Egypt's al-Qahera TV. The US president's national security adviser has also confirmed that negotiators are in the advanced stages. 

- The Times of Israel, citing the Saudi broadcaster al-Hadath, reports that Israel has sent Hamas a list of names of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to be swapped for captives in Gaza in a ceasefire deal. Some of the prisoners are serving life sentences, al-Hadath said, but added that the highly-coveted prisoner Marwan Barghouti is not among them.

- Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he will oppose any ceasefire agreement. "We will not be part of a surrender deal that involves releasing dangerous terrorists, halting the war, squandering the hard-won achievements paid for in blood, and abandoning many hostages still in captivity," he said in a post on X.

- The Israeli army announced on Monday that five of its soldiers have been killed in northern Gaza, the Reuters news agency reported.  The army did not specify exactly when they were killed. 

- The death toll from Israel's 16-month assault on Gaza has now surpassed 46,600. 

- Lebanese state news agency NNA reported four more Israeli violations of its ceasefire deal with Hezbollah. It said that Israeli forces targeted several home homes in the town of Aita ash-Shaab in southern Lebanon. The same source reported that an Israeli reconaissance plane flew at low altitude over the city of Tyre. It added that Israel conducted a large-scale military operation in the town of Khaim, and that military vehicles were seen advancing into the town of Meiss el-Jabal.

- The head of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Nawaf Salam, secured the support of enough lawmakers to be designated Lebanon's next prime minister. As president of the world court he ordered Israel to stop its military offensive in Gaza, but stopped short of using the term "ceasefire". 

Academics, activists and alumni are criticising Columbia University this week after tenured professor Katherine Franke announced that the institution pressured her to retire over her vocal criticism of Israel and support for pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Franke founded the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and served on the executive committee of Columbia's Center for Palestine Studies.

Late last week, she announced in a statement that she had "reached an agreement" with the university to retire after serving 25 years as a law faculty member. But while the university may call this change in status "retirement", Franke said, it should be "understood as a termination dressed up in more palatable terms".

"I have come to regard Columbia Law School as a hostile work environment in which I can no longer enter the classroom, hold office hours, walk through the campus, or engage in faculty governance functions free from egregious and unwelcome harassment on account of my defense of students’ freedom to protest and express views that are critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians." 

Read more: Esteemed professor says university's 'toxic and hostile environment' made it impossible for her to continue teaching at the Ivy League institution

A Gaza ceasefire deal could be announced as early as Tuesday afternoon local time, Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reported on Monday. 

The Financial Times, citing its sources, reported on Monday that negotiators in Doha working on a Gaza ceasefire deal are "98 percent close" to closing it. 

A separate source noted: “The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal.”

The FT story notes that it was the election of US President-elect Donald Trump that changed the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he wants to "align" with Trump. 

US President Joe Biden, delivering his final foreign policy speech of his presidency, said on Monday that "Israel and Hamas [are] on the brink of the proposal laid out in detail months ago, finally coming to fruition", referring to a ceasefire deal built out on the draft proposed last May. 

Washington and its allies Egypt and Qatar are "pressing hard to close this deal", Biden added.

The impending deal, he said, would "free the hostages, pause the fighting, providing security to Israel and allow[ing] us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war".

"They've been through hell," Biden said of Palestinians in Gaza. "So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace, the right to determine their own future. Israel's deserves peace and security, the hostages and their families deserve to be reunited." 

Further rounds of "intensive talks" on a Gaza ceasefire will move from Doha to Cairo "to put the final touches" on a deal, sources have told Egypt's al-Qahera TV, according to the Reuters news agency. 

The Times of Israel, citing the Saudi broadcaster al-Hadath, reports that Israel has sent Hamas a list of names of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to be swapped for captives in Gaza in a ceasefire deal.

Some of the prisoners are serving life sentences, al-Hadath said, but added that the highly-coveted prisoner Marwan Barghouti is not among them.

A deal could be announced late on Monday or Tuesday, the report noted, but it would not go into effect before 22 January - two days after the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump. 

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden has made calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and is expected to speak to Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi later in the day as ceasefire talks on Gaza appear to have made a breakthrough. 

The deal "includes prisoner exchange for hostages. It includes a surge of humanitarian assistance once the guns go quiet, which we will be able to move trucks much more rapidly," Sullivan said.

"Since June, we've had multiple efforts to close the deal. We've come close and haven't been able to get across the line. There have been some details, particularly around the formulas with respect to prisoner releases [and] the exact disposition of Israeli forces and other things along those lines, those details we have been handling away at week after week, month after month, and now in the last period, just over the course of the last several weeks, we have accelerated that effort to try to bring this to a close," he added. 

Qatar has confirmed that its emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met with a Hamas delegation in Doha on Monday as ceasefire talks with Israel appear to be close to a deal. 

The Associated Press earlier reported that US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steven Witcoff, has been applying pressure on Israel to accept the deal on the table. 

The Israeli army announced on Monday that five of its soldiers have been killed in northern Gaza, the Reuters news agency reported. 

The army did not specify exactly when they were killed. 

Al Jazeera is reporting that 45 people have been killed by Israeli forces across Gaza since dawn. It reported earlier that 33 people had been killed.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he will oppose any ceasefire agreement, saying it would be a "catastrophe for Israel's national security".

"We will not be part of a surrender deal that involves releasing dangerous terrorists, halting the war, squandering the hard-won achievements paid for in blood, and abandoning many hostages still in captivity," he said in a post on X.

"Now is the time to intensify our efforts, using all available force to fully secure and cleanse the Gaza Strip," he added.

"We must take decisive control of humanitarian aid to prevent its exploitation by Hamas, and open the gates of hell on Gaza until Hamas surrenders unconditionally and all hostages are safely returned."

His comments come as top officials report progress towards securing the deal.

Wafa news agency is reporting that several people have been killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike targeting a home on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces shelled homes in northern Rafah, in southern Gaza.

In Beit Hanoun, a "large number" of homes were set alight by Israeli forces, the agency reported.

Senior Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad said on Monday the group's opponents were seeking its fragmentation and exclusion from power in Lebanon.

Speaking at the presidential palace after Hezbollah lawmakers had met with President Joseph Aoun, Raad said his group had "extended its hand" by helping to secure Aoun's election as Lebanon's president last week, only to find the "hand cut off".

Reporting by Reuters