Well, Qatar's Prime Minister has spoken to reporters in Doha about the prospect of a deal to release some hostages.

It's not really about a specific thing that I can comment yes or no about it, but the challenges that remains in the negotiations are very minor compared to the bigger challenges. They are more logistical, they are more practical. I believe that with the willingness of both parties to engage and to have this deal moving, we can reach there. We've been focused in the past four or five weeks now in these negotiations. We tried every way all possible ways, in order to ensure that civilians are released and we treat all human beings are the same. Civilians are civilians, whether they are from the Israeli side or the Palestinian side. As we mentioned in several occasions, our focus is to make sure that the release happening safely and there are also the humanitarian issues of the Qatar strip to be addressed in that deal.

That was Qatar's Prime Minister there. Well, I'm joined now in the studio by our Middle East, Sebastian. Ashrid, Sebastian, tell us more about what's been said about a potential hostage deal.

What we were hearing there from a Qatari Prime Minister who also serves as their foreign minister, is more upbeat than we've heard for several days in public, at least about what's going on. He's saying that the challenges that remain about trying to get this deal done—and this is only a partial deal, remember. This is not a deal, obviously, for the full number of hostages to be released, but that they are now the logistical, the practical details. They're very minor. In such a sensitive deal as this, even logistical and practical details, I would suggest, could still be a major block. What he's saying, I think also the timing of it is interesting. We had a Washington Post article just in the past 24 hours, suggesting that a deal is almost done, that essentially the way that it will be managed would be 50 hostages versus women and children would be released, and in return, Israel would provide a five-day ceasefire. Now, in previous leaks that we've had about what a deal might be with the Qatari mediation, this is Hamas, Israel, and the US all very much involved in this, had been, I think, for a lesser amount of time for the ceasefire.

Three days, I think, was the previous. Also, Hamas had been demanding that there would be an exchange of prisoners that Israel has as well, Palestinian women and Palestinian children. That doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. He didn't say that it's imminent. He didn't say, expect news of this in the next day or two. But I think this all looks, the choreography, looks, even after White House denial, essentially saying that there's no deal that's actually been done yet, but they're working towards it, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, also, in a sense, talking it down. I think we are inevitably moving towards this. I think everything is merging to make this seem the likeliest option within the next days, next weeks.

Okay, Sebastian, thank you very much.