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| Palestinians sit amid rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip 1 December 2024 |
Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian security officials on Sunday in a fresh push for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, two Hamas sources said, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to hold security talks on the matter, two Israeli officials said.
The Hamas visit to Cairo was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, that would include a hostage deal.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Palestinian territory were now more likely.
"(Hamas) are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts," he told CNN on Sunday.
"So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I'm not going to predict exactly when it will happen ... we've come so close so many times and not gotten across the finish line."
Through several rounds of negotiations over the past year, Hamas has insisted that any deal should conclude with Israel ending the war, while Israel says the war will end when Hamas no longer rules Gaza or poses a threat to Israelis.
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