JERUSALEM /ISTANBUL

Israeli media on Monday reported progress in negotiations with the Palestinian group Hamas regarding a prisoner swap and ending the war in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the US has pledged that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the Gaza ceasefire if Hamas agreed to release more than 8 living hostages and hand over the remains of several dead captives.

“Israeli officials believe that significant progress has been made in the prisoner negotiations, and that there may be a shift in Hamas’s position,” the newspaper added.

A Hamas delegation, headed by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo on Sunday to deliver the group’s response to the latest Israeli proposal.

The daily said that the proposal calls for the release of 9-10 living hostages.

Israel “is also demanding the return of the remains of around 10 hostages,” it added.

The Israeli Channel 12, citing unnamed senior Israeli sources, said that though there was no breakthrough yet, “significant moves are underway.”

On Saturday, Hamas confirmed that it would respond positively to any proposals that ensure a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal, and a serious prisoner exchange.

The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

Nearly 51,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.