Egypt submitted a proposal on Sunday to extend the first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas for two weeks, during which negotiations for the second phase would resume. Hamas would commit to handing over two batches of Israeli prisoners, each batch containing three prisoners, one of which would include living prisoners and the other would include bodies, according to what Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported on Sunday, quoting an Egyptian source.

Israel denied receiving a new Egyptian proposal, and that an Israeli delegation is expected to head to Cairo to discuss the Egyptian proposal.

The Egyptian source expected that the proposal would be accepted by Hamas. At the same time, he pointed out that the mediators in Egypt are counting heavily on an American push for the efforts made to continue the ceasefire by pressuring the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in light of what the source described as a desire on the part of the American administration not to resume the war.

The Egyptian source said he expected the Israeli delegation to return to Cairo later today to discuss the proposal, and also in an attempt to prepare a complete vision before Trump's envoy, Steve Whittaker, arrives in the region this week. The source said that according to the signals coming from Israel, there is a tendency not to resume any military operations for the next few days at the very least.

In the same context, another Egyptian source confirmed that the Salah al-Din “Philadelphi” axis file has recently topped Egyptian-Israeli and Egyptian-American contacts, and that Cairo has conveyed to all concerned parties its adherence to the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the axis, and that Egypt has made it clear that it will not make further concessions or guarantees regarding the Israeli security observations, regarding not using the border strip for arms smuggling operations.

The source revealed that a sharp discussion took place at a high level between an Egyptian official and his American counterpart, during which the representative of the American administration conveyed an accusation against Egypt regarding “some responsibility” for what happened on October 7, 2023, in reference to the Hamas attack, claiming a lack of sufficient control over the border strip.

The Egyptian official responded that this talk is a repetition of the talk promoted by Israeli officials to evade their responsibility and their failure to prevent what happened.

The source added that Cairo expressed its readiness to cooperate and coordinate fully regarding the security situation on the border with the Gaza Strip, and to implement the American project based on precise technical monitoring of that area, provided that Israeli forces withdraw completely from the Salah al-Din axis.