An Egyptian security delegation will travel to Israel on Thursday in an effort to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
A source in Israel denied the reports and said, according to Ynet, that "there is no such thing."
The Hamas terrorist organization put out an official statement earlier on Wednesday, saying that it is interested in a deal to end the war which began after it launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
However, in that statement, Hamas again insisted that any agreement must include an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have held several rounds of indirect negotiations, with the US, Egypt and Qatar serving as mediators, in an attempt to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and for Hamas to free the hostages it has been holding since the October 7, 2023 massacre it carried out in Israel.
The talks have been unsuccessful as Hamas has rejected every proposal that has been presented to it.
Egypt last month publicly proposed a two-day ceasefire deal in which four Israeli hostages would be released in exchange for terrorist prisoners held in Israel and in the ten days following, negotiations would be held regarding a more extensive deal.
Hamas initially said it does not support a limited timeframe of several days in which the organization would return some of the hostages and afterwards the fighting would continue. Later, sources in Hamas told the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the terrorist organization is willing to consider Egypt’s proposal as well as other proposals.
Previously, Hamas rejected an American outline for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that President Joe Biden first laid out this past May.