Hamas leaders conducted talks with Egyptian security officials on Sunday as part of renewed efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, according to two sources from Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to hold security discussions on the same issue, as reported by two Israeli officials.
This marked Hamas’s first visit to Cairo since the United States announced on Wednesday that it would renew diplomatic efforts, in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, which would also include a hostage agreement.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan expressed optimism, stating that the chances of reaching a ceasefire and a hostage deal in the Palestinian territory seemed to be increasing.
“(Hamas) are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts,” he told CNN on Sunday.
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“So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I’m not going to predict exactly when it will happen … we’ve come so close so many times and not gotten across the finish line.”
Through several rounds of negotiations over the past year, Hamas has insisted that any deal should conclude with Israel ending the war, while Israel says the war will end when Hamas no longer rules Gaza or poses a threat to Israelis.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that there was some indication of progress toward a hostage deal but that Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed.
“We will know in the coming days. From our perspective, the government of Israel, there is a desire to advance in this direction,” he said at a Israel Hayom newspaper conference.
Fighting raged on meanwhile in the enclave and the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said it had to halt aid deliveries through one crossing a day after armed gangs inside Gaza seized food from a truck convoy.
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