Israel and Hamas are making progress toward a six-week cease-fire and hostage-release deal, officials have said.
Negotiations have continued as Israel threatened to expand its offensive into Rafah, on Gaza’s southern edge.
Representatives of Qatar, the US and Israel have been meeting in Egypt’s capital, Cairo.
Mediators have achieved “relatively significant” progress, said a senior Egyptian official ahead of the talks.
The official said the meeting would focus on “crafting a final draft” of a six-week ceasefire deal, with guarantees that the parties would continue negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire.
A Western diplomat in the Egyptian capital cautioned that more work is still needed to reach an agreement.
The diplomat said today’s meeting would be crucial in bridging the remaining gaps.
CIA chief William Burns and the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, were attending the talks – both key in brokering the previous ceasefire.
In recent weeks, Israel has proposed a two-month ceasefire in which hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and allowing top Hamas leaders in Gaza to relocate to other countries.
Hamas rejected those terms. It laid out a three-phase plan of 45 days each in which the hostages would be released in stages, Israel would free hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, including senior militants, and the war would wind down, with Israel withdrawing its troops.
That was viewed as a non-starter for Israel, which wants to topple Hamas before ending the war.
https://news.sky.com/story/middle-east-latest-two-hostages-rescued-from-gaza-says-israel-violent-strikes-launched-on-rafah-reports-12978800
