Israel is sending a delegation to Egypt to attend further cease-fire discussions with mediators, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested that Tel Aviv have control over the area in Gaza on the border with Egypt as part of negotations.
A delegation from the Israeli domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and the Israeli military will travel to Cairo shortly, the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem announced on Thursday.
At the same time, the office confirmed that a team of negotiators had returned from the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday night. Israeli delegates had met there with top representatives of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, all of which are acting as mediators in the talks.
Qatar in particular is in direct contact with Hamas.
Israel has been pressing ahead with new attacks across the north, south and center of Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians in schools and camps in recent days. The Israeli military urged all Palestinians to leave Gaza City and head south Wednesday, with nowhere safe in the blockaded enclave to relocate. The United Nations says about 300,000 Palestinians are still in hard-hit northern Gaza, with the bulk of those said to be in Gaza City.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, attacks and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to take steps to protect Palestinians as it examines genocide allegations against Israeli leaders.
The slow-moving talks center on exchanging the hostages for Palestinian captives, including children, being held in Israeli prisons and about ways to achieve a lasting cease-fire in the Gaza war.
Hamas is demanding that Israel end the war, which has devastated the blockaded enclave and killed tens of thousands of civilians, quickly. Israel, on the other hand, wants to keep the option of attacking the Gaza Strip open even after the hostages have been released.
According to media reports, Hamas has recently shown flexibility in some of its positions.
Israeli negotiators had sounded optimistic after the round on Wednesday.
"We are close to an agreement on the principles of a deal," the Israeli TV station Channel 13 quoted a government official as saying.
Hamas, on the other hand, did not raise expectations. The group had not received any negotiation results from the mediators, it said in a statement and accused Israel of "delaying" and "sabotaging" the ongoing talks.
Israel has come under international criticism during the nine months of war for the extensive civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, the immense damage to buildings and civilian infrastructure in the sealed-off territory and the catastrophic humanitarian situation, where civilians have no access to clean water, food, health services and have no safe place to take refuge in as Israel indiscriminately targets safe zones and refugee camps.
On Thursday, the United Nations warned that nearly half a million people in the Gaza Strip are suffering from "catastrophic levels of hunger."
"Limited access & supplies has meant families often don't receive the food assistance they need," the U.N. said in a post on X.
The U.N. World Food Programme remains on the ground, but needs reliable access and relief supplies, the U.N. said.
Netanyahu demands Israeli control of Gaza territory on Egypt border
Prime Minister Netanyahu demanded Thursday that Israel retain control of key Gaza territory along the border with Egypt as part of any accord to suspend the war with Hamas.
The condition conflicts with Hamas's position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a cease-fire.
Speaking after the return of Israeli negotiators from talks with mediators in Qatar, Netanyahu said Israel needed control to stop weapons reaching Hamas from Egypt – one of four conditions for a deal with the Palestinian group.
He did not say if the measure would be permanent. But it is the first time Israel has insisted on retaining control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the so-called Philadelphi corridor along the border.
Netanyahu said Israel's negotiators, led by Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, went to Doha to defend what he called four "ironclad principles," with the key condition that Israel be allowed to keep fighting until its war aims of destroying Hamas and bringing home all hostages are achieved.