United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says it may take “a few more days” to resolve a handful of “technical issues” standing in the way of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas to end the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. But conflicting reports emerging throughout the day have left open the question of whether the ceasefire is imminent or still far off.

It has been reported that Hamas has offered a year-long, renewable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if Israel will withdraw its forces in the next week, but Israel has insisted it would never accept to any temporary ceasefire in the strip.

In spite of this, Palestinian sources claimed both sides agreed to a general outline for the ceasefire, and a two-week truce would begin, likely in the next 72 hours, to allow time to finish up the agreement. Yet the Spanish Foreign Ministry, which has been involved in the negotiations, denied that the reports were accurate, saying they had no “information from Hamas” to support it.

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