Egyptian security delegation in Israel to discuss Gaza cease-fire

CAIRO, Egypt

A top Egyptian security delegation arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday to discuss a possible Gaza cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, according to Egyptian and Israeli media.

Private Al Qahera news TV quoted an informed, unnamed Egyptian source saying that the Egyptian delegation includes a group of experts on the issue.

The source added that the delegation will discuss a comprehensive framework for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying there is a "significant progress" in narrowing differences between the Egyptian and Israeli delegations.

Israeli news website Ynet also confirmed the arrival of an Egyptian delegation in Israel to meet officials in efforts to achieve a deal.

Tel Aviv believes 134 Israelis are being held in Gaza, while Israel is holding some 9,000 Palestinians in its jails.

Indirect talks between Israel and the Hamas group are taking place in both Cairo and Doha aimed at reaching a deal that includes a prisoner swap under which the Israeli captives would be released in exchange for Palestinians’ release from Israeli jails.

However, no breakthroughs have been made so far amid mutual accusations of being responsible for the failure to reach a prisoner swap and cease-fire in Gaza.

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, while vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, and 85% of the enclave’s population has been forced into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar