Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Sunday that Mossad chief David Barnea had returned from Rome after discussing with other mediators the "clarification document" on the Gaza negotiations.

Netanyahu's office added in a statement that the meetings (on the exchange deal) will be renewed in the coming days. Earlier on Sunday, Israeli media reported that Barnea had arrived in Rome to participate in prisoner exchange negotiations with Hamas. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Barnea will meet with CIA Director William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel.

On Saturday evening, Israel delivered to the United States its updated proposal for the Gaza ceasefire negotiations and a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, according to the American website Axios.

The website quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the updated Israeli proposal includes mention of establishing a "foreign mechanism to monitor and prevent the transfer of militants and weapons from the southern Gaza Strip to the north," but without detailing how this mechanism would work or who would be responsible for it, according to the website.

The Israeli official pointed out that the updated proposal also includes changes in the locations where the occupation army forces will be redeployed in the Gaza Strip in the first phase of the deal, in addition to stipulating that the occupation forces remain in the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt during the implementation of the first phase.

Axios said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has toughened his stance on the Gaza negotiations and added new demands, such as establishing a mechanism to monitor "the movement of Palestinian weapons and militants from southern Gaza to the north," and maintaining Israeli control over the Gaza-Egypt border.

US President Joe Biden stressed during a meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday the need to close the remaining gaps in order to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, complete the agreement as soon as possible, return the detainees and reach a sustainable end to the war.

According to the website, Israeli negotiators are not optimistic that the meeting in Rome will lead to a breakthrough. They doubted that the US president’s pressure on Netanyahu had persuaded the latter to ease some of his tough new demands in the updated Israeli proposal.

"Netanyahu wants a deal that is impossible to get. Right now, he is not willing to move, and therefore, we may be heading towards a crisis in the negotiations rather than reaching a deal," an Israeli official told the website on Saturday.

According to what the website quoted from an informed source on Friday, the meeting in Rome is not expected to include detailed negotiations on the remaining gaps regarding the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the prisoner exchange, but will focus mainly on developing a strategy for moving forward in the negotiations.

For the 296th day, the Israeli aggression on Gaza continues amid ongoing bloody massacres, while bitter waves of displacement continue throughout the besieged Strip, isolated from the outside world, which has been subjected to a bloody campaign of violent aerial and ground bombardment since October 7, 2023.

Source: (Anatolia, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed)