Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed, at the start of his meeting with former US President Donald Trump on Friday, that he is sending a team to Rome at the beginning of the week for talks on a hostage release deal.
"I hope we get a deal. Time will tell. We are definitely eager to get a deal and we are working on it,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian source told Al Qahera Al Ikhbariya that "an Egyptian security delegation will participate in the quadrilateral meeting in Rome on Sunday."
The source also said that "the meeting comes as part of the mediators' efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement. Egypt stressed to all participating parties that a formula must be reached that guarantees freedom of movement for the citizens of Gaza, a complete withdrawal from the Rafah crossing, an immediate ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid."
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Hamas rejected the new Israeli demands, however a senior Israeli official said Hamas had not yet seen the latest proposals, which were expected to go out "in the coming hours".
"The messages from Hamas are bizarre because we haven't sent it yet, nobody has read it yet. Even the negotiators haven't got it yet. They will read it before transferring it to Hamas for their reaction," said the official.
Egyptian sources said there was another sticking point over Israel's demand to retain control of Gaza's border with Egypt, which Cairo dismissed as outside a framework for a final deal accepted by the two sides.
US President Joe Biden in late May outlined a three-phase proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. He recently indicated that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to the outline and reiterated his determination to implement the proposal.
On Wednesday, a US official said that the negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal are in their "closing stages", adding that Biden and Netanyahu would discuss the details during their meeting.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)