Delegations from the Palestinian resistance group Hamas and mediator Qatar arrived in Cairo on Saturday to hold further discussions on a cease-fire and hostage deal with Israel.
They added that both teams arrived aboard a flight from Qatar.
Egypt's state-affiliated television al-Qahera News also reported the arrival of a Hamas delegation in Cairo and cited "significant progress" in negotiations to reach the deal.
The broadcaster, citing a high-level source, said the Egyptian security team engaged in the negotiations had reached a "consensus formula" on several contentious issues. No specific details were given.
As part of the latest mediation efforts, Hamas was presented with a proposal for a cease-fire in return for the release of remaining hostages. A response is still pending.
More than 100 hostages were released during a six-day truce in November. It is unclear how many of those remaining in captivity are still alive.
As of Friday, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said the death toll in Gaza from Israeli attacks since the war began stood at 34,622, which was 26 more than the prior day.
Months of mediation by Egypt, Qatar and the United States in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas have yet to result in a breakthrough. A diplomatic push to clinch a deal has picked momentum over the past few days.
Late Friday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at an event in Arizona that it was challenging to understand Hamas' thought process.
"The leaders of Hamas that we're indirectly engaged with through the Qataris, through the Egyptians, are of course living outside of Gaza, living in Qatar or living in Türkiye, other places, and the ultimate decision-makers are the folks who are actually in Gaza itself with whom none of us have direct contact," he said.
Blinken said if Hamas was really concerned about the well-being of the Palestinians, then agreeing to the cease-fire deal that is on the table should be a "no-brainer."
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it carried out an airstrike on a rocket launch site in the southern Gaza Strip.
Fighter jets hit a site near the city of Khan Younis after a rocket was fired from there toward the Ein HaShlosha kibbutz on Friday, the IDF said.
In addition, a mortar launching site in central Gaza was also destroyed, a statement said.
The Israeli navy has also conducted strikes along Gaza's coast over the past day.
According to Palestinian security services, the Israeli army attacked a building in the village of Abasan in the east of Khan Younis and shelled refugee camps in the central part of the Palestinian territory.
It said at least one Palestinian was killed in the Israeli navy strikes.
After months of stop-and-start negotiations, the cease-fire efforts appear to have reached a critical stage, with Egyptian and American mediators reporting signs of compromise in recent days. But chances for the deal remain entangled with the key question of whether Israel will accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas.
The proposal that U.S. and Egyptian mediators have put to Hamas – apparently with Israel's acceptance – sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli hostages but also negotiations over a "permanent calm" that includes some Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to an Egyptian official. Hamas is seeking guarantees for a full Israeli withdrawal and a complete end to the war.
Hamas officials have sent mixed signals about the proposal in recent days. But on Thursday, its supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said that he had spoken to Egypt's intelligence chief and "stressed the positive spirit of the movement in studying the cease-fire proposal."
The statement said that Hamas negotiators would travel to Cairo "to complete the ongoing discussions to work forward for an agreement." Haniyeh said he had also spoken to the prime minister of Qatar, another key mediator in the process.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that even if a cease-fire is reached, Israel will eventually attack Rafah despite global calls not to. He repeated his determination to do so in talks Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Israel on a regional tour to push the deal through.
An Israeli airstrike, meanwhile, killed at least five people, including a child, in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The bodies were seen and counted by Associated Press journalists at a hospital.
The "productive basis of the economy has been destroyed," and poverty is rising sharply among Palestinians, according to the report released Thursday by the United Nations Development Program and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
It said that in 2024, the entire Palestinian economy – including both Gaza and the West Bank – has so far contracted 25.8%. It said that if the war continues, the loss will reach a "staggering" 29% by July. The West Bank economy has been hit by Israel's decision to cancel the work permits for tens of thousands of laborers who depended on jobs inside Israel.
"These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does," UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said. He warned of a "serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come."
