THIS week, Israeli and Hamas negotiators will once again attempt to end the nine-month war in the Gaza Strip. Previous attempts crashed and burned because the two sides refused to dial down their demands, leaving no wiggle room for concessions.

This time, however, the arch-enemies are willing to temper their hardline positions to give the talks the traction to move forward.

Hamas has steadfastly refused to sit down with Israel unless Israel commits to a full ceasefire in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, is agreeable only to a pause in the fighting, having vowed to continue the war until Hamas is crushed and the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza are freed.

Hopes of getting negotiations back on track were buoyed after Hamas dropped its demand that any agreement must have a guarantee from Israel of a permanent ceasefire. The group has also agreed to a standing proposal by the United States to begin negotiations for a prisoner-hostage swap.

That could provide the opening for Israel to resume negotiations with Hamas, according to observers. The Netanyahu government had staunchly refused to cave in to US pressure to accept a ceasefire deal that called for the release of the hostages, an end to hostilities and the start of a massive reconstruction effort in Gaza.

With Hamas on board, there's no more reason for Netanyahu not to accept the US ceasefire plan.

On October 7 last year, Hamas troops launched simultaneous raids on Israeli border communities as payback for the continued blockade of the Gaza Strip and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian-controlled areas.

About 1,200 people, including Filipino caregivers, were massacred before the Hamas raiders retreated back to Gaza, taking with them 253 hostages.

Israeli retaliation was swift and brutal. On October 27, Israel launched Operation Swords of Iron, a full-scale invasion of Gaza aimed at destroying the political and military structure of Hamas and freeing the hostages.

Close to 36,000 Palestinians have been killed since the invasion began, and 75 percent of Gaza's 2.5-million population are now refugees in their own land.

The Palestinian enclave has been edging toward a humanitarian catastrophe as the fighting reduced the flow of food, fuel, medicine and other provisions to a trickle.

Israel has shunned international appeals to end the humanitarian crisis, pressing ahead with its relentless offensive.

As late as June 23, an Israeli official said talks with Hamas over a ceasefire deal have reached a dead end. "There is no longer any room for additional discussions, and mediators no longer have influence" over the head of Hamas in Gaza, the official said.

To their credit, the US, along with Qatar and Egypt, never wavered in shepherding Israel and Hamas back to the negotiating table.

Their persistence has paid off. Details of the US-proposed plan that have been leaked indicate that it will start with a six-week ceasefire during which older, sick and female hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces will pull back from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow displaced families to return to their homes.

It will free more Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Hamas in return would return any remaining hostages, including the bodies of the dead.

The ceasefire deal would also allow around 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza daily.

The agreement could defuse tensions in the Middle East region. It could spell the end to the attacks by Hamas-sympathetic Houthi rebels on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The attacks have driven up the cost of shipping and the price of consumer goods.

Israel insists there are "gaping holes" that must be plugged during the negotiations, and Hamas wants a written guarantee from the mediators that Israel will not resume the fighting and that negotiations will continue until a permanent ceasefire is reached.

These are side issues that do not detract from the fact that, for the first time in a long while, the protagonists in the war in Gaza have come together to find a way to reopen the path to peace.

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