Egypt dispatched a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the goal of brokering a cease-fire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, according to two officials.
The group is led by Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, who aims to discuss with Israel a “new vision” for a long-term cease-fire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the mission freely.
As the war drags on and casualties mount, international pressure has grown on Hamas and Israel to negotiate an agreement on a cease-fire.
Friday’s talks will focus at first on a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.
The hope is that negotiations will then continue, with the goal of a larger deal to end the war, he said.
The official said mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties’ main demands.
Hamas has said it will not back down from its demands for a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops, both of which Israel has rejected.
Israel says it will continue military operations until Hamas is defeated and that it will retain a security presence in Gaza afterwards.
Overnight, Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed border area, killing an Israeli civilian.
Hezbollah said its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight Thursday, destroying two vehicles. The Israeli military said the ambush wounded an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work, and that he later died of his wounds.
Low-intensity fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has repeatedly threatened to boil over as Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah militants in recent months.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border. On the Israeli side, the cross-border fighting has killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers, while in Lebanon, more than 350 people have been killed, including 50 civilians and 271 Hezbollah members.
Egypt has also said an attack on Rafah would violate the decades-old peace deal between Egypt and Israel.
The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the Hamas’ Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people as hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women.
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