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Negotiations involving Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the US are under way for a three-day truce to allow humanitarian aid, including fuel, to enter Gaza in exchange for the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas, according to Egyptian officials.
They said the proposed truce would be guaranteed and overseen by the US.
In Cairo, three top Hamas leaders – Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal and Khalil Al Hayya – met on Thursday with the chief of Egypt's intelligence agency Gen Abbas Kamel and his top aides to discuss details of the proposed deal, according to the officials.
Gen Kamel's Directorate of General Intelligence has for years been in charge of the “Palestinian-Israeli file”, with its senior operatives mediating truces to end bouts of violence between Israel and Hamas and seeking to reconcile rival Palestinian factions as well.
Gen Kamel is also known to be a confidant of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, a former army general.
Under the proposed deal, the dispatch of much larger relief supplies into the Gaza Strip, where at least 10,500 people have been killed in more than four weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment, would be co-ordinated by Egypt, which shares a border with Israel and Gaza in the Sinai Peninsula, the officials added.
Israel has agreed in principle to drop its opposition to the entry of fuel into Gaza, provided that its use is monitored by the UN and US representatives, according to the officials.
The officials did not have an exact number of the hostages who would be released under the proposed deal but suggested it could be anywhere between 20 and 50, including US citizens. The hostages to be released would include women, children and elderly persons and freed in batches.
Hamas also want women and children held in Israeli jails to be released under the proposed deal and that Israeli forces already inside Gaza are not reinforced or redeployed during the truce.
Barring unforeseen developments, the deal could be announced on Thursday or Friday, they said.
There has been no official word from any of the four countries involved in the negotiations or from Hamas, which is not surprising given the secrecy and delicacy of the process.
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Smoke rises as displaced Palestinians take shelter at Al Shifa hospital. Reuters -
A Palestinian girl wounded in Israeli strikes waits for treatment at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza city. Reuters -
Flames rage in a field near the border village of Burj Al-Mamluk, in southern Lebanon's Khiam plain, after an Israeli bombardment. AFP -
Smoke rises after air strikes during direct combat between the Israeli army and Hamas, near the beach road in Gaza city. EPA -
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, looking for safety, camp on the grounds of Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza. Getty Images -
Israeli troops during operations in northern Gaza. AFP -
A photo taken from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza shows the continued Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip. AFP -
Palestinian men pray over the bodies of members of the Abu Taim family before burial in Khan Younis. AFP -
Israeli soldiers stand amid rubble during the ground invasion against Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
A woman and two children evacuated from Gaza walk on the tarmac at the Baza 90 air force base in Otopeni, Romania, after arriving from Egypt. AP -
Gazans inspect the Khaled bin Al-Walid Mosque, which was destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis. Getty Images -
Residents flee from Al Shatea refugee camp during combat between the Israeli army and Hamas in Gaza city. EPA -
An artillery unit moves near the border with Lebanon, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Getty Images -
Smoke rises during direct combat between the Israeli army and militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of the Hamas movement, at the beach road in west-centre Gaza City. EPA -
People search for survivors and bodies after a building was hit by Israeli bombing in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
A boy learns his father has been killed in an Israeli air strike at a hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters -
Israeli soldiers training in the upper Galilee region, near the border with Lebanon. AFP -
Destruction in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot in southern Israel. Reuters -
A girl looks on as bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are laid out at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters -
Mourners pray next to the bodies of members of the Daher family, who were killed by Israel strikes, at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
A satellite image shows the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Reuters -
People search through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis. Getty Images -
Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot. Reuters -
An ambulance transporting injured Palestinians to Egyptian hospitals for treatment waits on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing. Reuters -
Palestinian doctor Mohammad Abu Namoos, who chose to stay in Gaza to treat patients, says goodbye to his family before they leave. Reuters -
The funeral of three children and their grandmother killed in an Israeli air strike in Blida, Lebanon. EPA -
Palestinian children denouncing the killing of children in Gaza by waving banners and flags during a sit-in protest at the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. AFP -
Men pray during a rally in support of Palestinians outside Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. AFP -
A teddy bear symbolising hostages and missing children is placed on a bench in Tel Aviv, as people gather for a vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel. Reuters -
A survivor of the Nova Festival attack, May Hayat, takes cover as rocket sirens sound, during her first visit to the scene of the attack, near Re'im, Israel. Reuters -
Palestinians flee Gaza city to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din street in Bureij. AP -
A satellite picture showing the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. AFP -
People gather in Tel Aviv for a candlelit vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the October 7 deadly attack by Hamas militants on Israel. Reuters -
Doris Liber, whose son Guy Iluz is being held hostage in Gaza, during a press conference with House Republicans at the Capitol in Washington. AP -
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij. AP -
Mourners attend the funeral of four Palestinians killed by Israeli troops at Tulkarm refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank. EPA
If implemented, the deal would significantly reduce the suffering of Gaza's 2.3 million people. The Palestinian territory has been under a complete Israeli siege since the war began on October 7 when a deadly rampage by Hamas militants in southern Israel left more than 1,400 people dead, the bloodiest single day in Israel's history.
The militants also took about 240 hostages back to Gaza.
Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and maintains a working relationship with Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. Like Egypt, Qatar is a close US ally that has close relations with Hamas's political leaders and is one of the impoverished territory's main benefactors.
Limited relief supplies – mostly food, water and medicines – have been sent to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt since October 21, but the UN says the amounts involved are a drop in the ocean given the needs of the tiny coastal enclave.
Israel has so far refused the entry of fuel for fear it could be used by Hamas for military purposes. The UN says fuel is desperately needed to keep hospitals and water treatment plants working.
