US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that his country is seeking to reach a temporary truce in Gaza as part of a possible prisoner exchange deal, while Israel witnessed protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to freeze talks on detainees.

Sullivan added in statements he made yesterday, Wednesday, that the goal is to begin with a temporary truce and build on it in order to reach a more sustainable situation.

For his part, Strategic Policy Coordinator at the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that Washington believes that the Cairo negotiations on Gaza were constructive.

He added in an interview with CNN that Washington is still involved and holds out hope that the talks will lead to a positive outcome.

In this context, the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) said that Minister Lloyd Austin discussed yesterday, in contact with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Galant, negotiations to secure the release of what he described as the remaining hostages of the Hamas movement.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the US ambassador to Qatar, Timmy Davis, said that his country views the ongoing negotiations in Egypt regarding reaching a humanitarian truce and ceasefire in Gaza with cautious optimism.

Davis added that US efforts are currently focused on reaching a peaceful solution to the conflict and developing a plan that could lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Cairo witnessed a new round of negotiations with Israeli and American participation, and reports stated that the talks did not make progress in light of Tel Aviv’s rejection of a number of demands that Hamas had previously presented to the mediators.

Disagreements and demonstrations

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas must give up its conditions, adding that then negotiations can advance.

Netanyahu added that the key to releasing the rest of the "kidnapped" is to continue military pressure on Hamas, which demands that any agreement lead to an end to the ongoing aggression against Gaza for more than 4 months.

Israeli media said that the Prime Minister ordered the Israeli delegation, which was supposed to travel today, Thursday, to resume prisoner exchange negotiations in Cairo, not to go there.

In this context, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that Netanyahu made the decision without the knowledge of the two ministers in the war council, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, indicating that they will demand full participation in decision-making in the war council today, Thursday.

As for the Israeli Channel 13, it quoted an unnamed Israeli official that a dispute broke out between the political and security elite in Israel regarding the delegation’s participation in the Cairo talks.

According to Tel Aviv estimates, there are still about 130 Israelis detained in Gaza, and 30 of them are likely killed.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the families of the Israeli prisoners demonstrated last night in front of the homes of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and War Council member Benny Gantz after the negotiation delegation’s travel to Cairo was cancelled, demanding the immediate conclusion of an exchange deal.

The families of the Israeli prisoners threatened to stage a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tel Aviv if Netanyahu continued to ignore them.

Also last night, dozens of demonstrators from the "Change Direction" movement stormed the headquarters of the Israeli Likud Party in Tel Aviv to protest the continued war on Gaza.

The protesters demanded a no-confidence vote in Benjamin Netanyahu's government and a date for immediate elections, considering it an extremist government that sacrifices citizens for its political survival.

The movement also called on members of the Likud Party to remove what it described as the extremist movement from the government.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies