The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, urged the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel to conclude an agreement that would put an end to the war during the negotiations currently taking place, while Egypt intensified its contacts with Hamas and the Israeli government regarding “controversial points” in the proposed prisoner exchange deal and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Gaza, the Israeli Mini-Ministerial Council for Security and Political Affairs (Cabinet) discussed the latest developments in the deal.

Guterres said that the two sides must reach an agreement “for the sake of the Palestinians in Gaza, the Israeli hostages and their families, the region and the world,” and expressed his fear that the war would intensify significantly if this did not happen.

For its part, Cairo News Channel (close to the government) quoted an unnamed high-ranking Egyptian source that the head of Egyptian General Intelligence, Major General Abbas Kamel, made a phone call to the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, without details about the phone conversations.

The source added that there is positive progress in negotiations regarding a prisoner exchange deal and a truce in Gaza.

Haniyeh announced on Thursday evening that a delegation from his movement would visit Egypt “as soon as possible” to complete indirect negotiations with Israel, during a phone call with the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani.

Haniyeh stressed the positive spirit of the movement in studying the ceasefire proposal that it received, stressing that the two parties agreed to complete the discussions, to mature an agreement mediated by Qatari and Egyptian, in a way that achieves the demands of the Palestinians and stops the aggression against them.

On Monday, the same channel reported that the Hamas delegation left Cairo and would return again with a written response to an Egyptian proposal regarding a truce deal in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli meeting

In a related context, the Israeli Cabinet devoted its session last night to discussing developments in the discussions to reach a new prisoner deal, coinciding with the escalation of protests by families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza, where protesters closed the main street adjacent to the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv.

The demonstrators chanted slogans demanding that the Israeli government conclude a deal immediately, considering any delay a danger to the lives of the detainees.

Israel confirmed late on Thursday that one of the detainees, Dror Or (48 years old), had been killed and that his body was still in Gaza.

Or's wife was also killed in a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, and two of his children were detained in Gaza and later released during a brief truce in November.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Hamas must accept the agreement on the table.

Miller added in a press briefing that the agreement meets a number of Hamas’ demands, noting that Israel has made concessions, he said.

High price

In turn, Israeli Army Radio, yesterday, Thursday, quoted officials as saying that Israel is preparing to consider withdrawing from the Netzarim axis in the Gaza Strip as a “heavy price” for a deal that includes an exchange of prisoners.

Israeli media said that Israel would be ready to consider positively a complete withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor, which divides the Strip into two halves, as part of the concessions it makes in a possible deal with Hamas. The same media added that the Israeli defense system is discussing implementing a focused operation on the Philadelphia axis as an alternative to a broad operation. In Rafah.

Israeli media had quoted Israeli and American officials as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during their meeting in occupied Jerusalem yesterday that he would not accept an exchange deal agreement that included ending the war on Gaza.

Netanyahu also said - according to Israeli and American sources - that if Hamas does not abandon this condition, there will be no agreement and Israel will invade Rafah, stressing that a ground operation in the city, which houses about 1.5 million displaced people, is not dependent on anything else.

The Israeli Prime Minister faces accusations from within the War Council, from the opposition, and from the families of the prisoners, of giving priority to his political interests by delaying concluding a deal to restore the Israeli prisoners in Gaza.

Previous efforts to reach a ceasefire faltered due to Hamas's demand that Israel pledge to end the war, while Israel insists that the war will continue in the end and threatens to invade the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which houses about a million displaced Palestinians, which raises the concern of the international community about their fate.

While Israel says that it will work to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Rafah, the US Secretary of State said during his visit to Israel the day before yesterday, Wednesday, that he had not seen such a plan yet.

Tel Aviv estimates that there are 133 Israeli detainees in Gaza, while Hamas announced that a number of them were killed in random raids launched by Israel, which holds at least 9,500 Palestinians in its prisons.

The efforts of the mediators in Qatar, Egypt and the United States are continuing to convince the two parties of an agreement that guarantees a ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners, in preparation for ending the Israeli war on Gaza, which has caused the death of more than 35 thousand Palestinians, most of them children and women, since the seventh of last October, in addition to To massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies