The American Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday that a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip “may be close,” despite the “obstacles” that still surround it, especially in light of the end of this latest round.

Hamas officials remained present in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, due to a possible resumption of negotiations on a deal, which would see the release of the hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, according to what the newspaper quoted Egyptian officials as saying.

These officials said, “The negotiators believe that Hamas and Israel are making slow progress, and could reach an agreement before the month of Ramadan,” according to the newspaper, while a senior Hamas official stated that the first week of Ramadan is “a more realistic goal” for reaching an agreement ( According to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper said that Israel had agreed to the broad outlines of the agreement, according to two officials, one Israeli and the other American, but the Israeli official expressed concern about “whether Hamas was sincere in reaching an agreement,” after the delegation in Cairo failed to provide a list of the names of the living hostages and their condition - This is the request that mediators say Israel submitted over the weekend.

The Israeli official added that Israel "believes that it is negotiating the fate of about 40 sick, elderly, and women hostages, but it does not know who of them is still alive."

The newspaper claims that Egyptian and Israeli officials said that Hamas did not provide answers on Sunday to two main sticking points: “Who are the Palestinian prisoners that the movement wants to release? How many hostages will be released?”

On Sunday, Israel decided not to send a high-level delegation to Cairo to participate in the negotiations, after mediators informed it that Hamas officials arrived in the Egyptian capital without answers to many of the main Israeli demands, according to the Israeli official.

Even if the two negotiating teams were able to reach an agreement, “there remains another major challenge, namely the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, with whom communication has not been possible for at least a week, raising fears of not being able to reach the man who can implement the agreement.” The deal,” Egyptian and Qatari officials said.

People familiar with the discussions said that Sinwar's final message to Hamas's political leadership in Qatar was that "there should be no rush to secure the hostage deal."

For its part, Egyptian media reported on Tuesday that the Cairo talks aimed at reaching a truce in Gaza “are still ongoing.”

A high-ranking security source confirmed to the Cairo News channel, which is close to Egyptian intelligence, that “the Cairo discussions are continuing, and there is no truth to the fact that an agreement has not been reached yet.”

The source indicated that there are “difficulties facing the discussions, but they are still continuing on Monday, as Egyptian security sources said that they were still in contact with the Israelis, allowing the negotiations to proceed without the participation of an Israeli delegation.”

There were hopes that the Cairo talks would be the last stop before reaching the first long-term ceasefire in the war, a 40-day truce, during which dozens of hostages would be released and aid would be pumped into Gaza to prevent famine, before the month of Ramadan.