William Burns
William BurnsTom Williams/Pool via REUTERS

CIA chief William Burns secretly visited Cairo before his meeting with Mossad chief David Barnea in Jordan, an Egyptian source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Monday morning.

According to the source, Burns visited Egypt on Friday, discussing the possibility of achieving a short humanitarian ceasefire which would last two to four days; during this ceasefire, negotiations on a hostage deal would continue. The source also said that the US is pressing for a quick ceasefire during Ramadan, and estimated that the Biden administration is eager not avoid hurting the Muslims' feelings.

Burns held a meeting in Egypt, discussing a proposal which would allow the cancellation of Israel's demand to see a list of live hostages from Hamas, and to allow the terror group to prepare an initial list of hostages who are in the terror group's hands or whose fate is known to them.

A Hamas source who spoke with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed did not express opposition to this, so long as a complete ceasefire is achieved. That same source said, in another context, that the terror group's highest echelon in Gaza is doing well and recently held a meeting to coordinate between the various prominent officials in the military arm of Hamas in Gaza.

The Hamas source denied communications difficulties between Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and the terror group's leaders abroad, and denied that there are any disagreements between them.