Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he welcomes mediation from the United Nations and Egypt to prevent a humanitarian collapse in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported Tuesday.
Netanyahu made the comments in a briefing to local journalists on Monday, various Israeli newspapers reported.
Egypt and UN officials have been seeking a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, with Qatar providing humanitarian assistance.
"We are working to prevent forces getting into Israel to harm our soldiers and communities," Netanyahu said, quoted by Haaretz newspaper.
"On the other hand, we're working to prevent a humanitarian crisis, which is why we're willing to accept the UN and Egyptian mediation efforts to achieve quiet and fix the electricity situation."
Yesterday, a senior political source said, "We're trying to bring about a situation where the actions we take stop the attacks and bring about a period of quiet, so we have to avert the fear of a humanitarian collapse and therefore we agreed to UN and Egypt mediation."
The senior official revealed that Israel and Hamas were on the brink of an agreement.
Answering Arutz Sheva on the nature of the arrangement, the source said "there's no political arrangement with anyone who wants to destroy us, what there is here is a deterrent and humanitarian solution. The choice here is between occupying Gaza and transferring it to another Arab element - and there's no such element who is interested - or to deal severe blows and take time until there's quiet. If there was an interested party, it's possible we might be occupying Gaza."