Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant considered that an agreement with the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip regarding the exchange of prisoners is closer than ever before.

Gallant's statements coincided with Israel's announcement that it had received, through mediators, a response from the Hamas movement to a proposal for an agreement to exchange Israeli prisoners for Palestinian ones and a ceasefire in Gaza, and its announcement that it would study it and present its response to it.

Israeli Channel 12 quoted the Defense Minister as saying in a meeting with the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza on Wednesday evening, “We are closer to an agreement than ever before.”

Gallant added a month ago, "I was pessimistic about the possibility of reaching an agreement soon, and one of my main goals in all meetings in the United States was to pressure Hamas to reach an agreement."

The Israeli channel indicated that the minister's office refused to comment on these statements.

Commenting on it, the office said that since the beginning of the war, Gallant had been holding “open and honest” conversations weekly in small groups with the families of detainees, and “we do not intend to comment on what was said in these conversations.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold security consultations prior to a meeting of the mini-ministerial council for security and political affairs (cabinet) to discuss negotiations and security developments.

This morning, the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza vowed to organize million-man demonstrations if the government failed to conclude a new prisoner exchange deal that began to loom on the horizon with the Palestinian factions in the Strip.

The American CNN network also quoted an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations (which it did not name) as saying that Israel and Hamas are approaching a framework agreement that guarantees a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages.

Opponents of the Netanyahu government, most notably the families of prisoners in Gaza, have escalated their activities in recent weeks demanding early elections, concluding a prisoner exchange agreement with the Palestinian factions, and a ceasefire in Gaza.

With the mediation of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, which provides absolute support to Israel, the Palestinian factions in Gaza and Israel have been conducting faltering indirect negotiations for months, to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners and stop the war on Gaza.

Israel's war on Gaza - with absolute American support since last October 7 - left more than 125,000 Palestinians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children.

Israel continues this war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, and the orders of the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of Rafah (south) and take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the miserable humanitarian situation in Gaza.