Israeli officials announced on Thursday that negotiators will be sent to Cairo for additional discussions surrounding a proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza.
Mediators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been pushing for a cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas conflict, with news reports saying the parties are moving closer to an agreement.
Hamas agreed that Israel wouldn’t need to commit to a permanent end of the war in Gaza as a part of a cease-fire agreement, a previously key demand of the militant group.
The U.S.-designated terror group is advocating for mediators to promise to take part in further negotiations until a permanent cease-fire deal is agreed upon. This would be done in return for releasing Israeli hostages taken October 7.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he won’t agree to a deal that would require the country to stop its military campaign before Israel can eliminate Hamas.
“The negotiating team returned last night from a four-way summit with the mediators in Doha. Discussed at the meeting were the clauses of the deal on returning the hostages and ways to implement the outline, while ensuring all the objectives of the war,” read a statement from the prime minister's office, which also said an Israeli delegation was heading to Cairo for continued talks.
The negotiations come as fighting continued Thursday in Gaza City, in northern Gaza, a day after Israel issued an evacuation order calling on civilians there to leave.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday the latest evacuation “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times.”
“These civilians must be protected, and their essential needs must be met, whether they flee or whether they stay,” Dujarric said.
The World Food Program posted on X Wednesday that there was “intensified military action” in Gaza City, resulting in “escalating humanitarian needs.” WFP said the situation is “unpredictable and volatile.”
Also Thursday, the Israeli military carried out airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah targeting what it said were militants who had fired rockets from the area.
The Israel Defense Forces said it successfully intercepted about five rockets launched from Rafah.
Israeli forces also intercepted “suspicious aerial targets” that crossed into Israeli territory from southern Lebanon on Thursday, while two drones following the same path fell in Israel’s Galilee area.
Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah have been clashing across the border throughout the war in Gaza, raising fears of an expanded conflict in the region.
Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in their October 7 terror attack on Israel that sparked the war. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 116 hostages, including 42 that the military says are dead.
Israel has since responded with an air and land assault on Hamas-governed Gaza, which both sides agree has killed more than 38,200 people. Israel says the majority of the dead are combatants. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says 38,000 have died, the majority of them women and children, but it does not estimate how many of the dead were combatants.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million population is displaced, and nearly the entire population is at risk of famine, according to the U.N.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
