"The Egyptian negotiation delegation is making intensive efforts to secure the much-needed ceasefire agreement in the strip," the source told Al-Qahera News.

Egyptian, Qatari, and US negotiators are working together to bring viewpoints closer to reaching a ceasefire, the source added.

Egypt, along with the US and Qatar, has been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in the 10-month-old Israeli war in Gaza.

Israel has killed and injured around 120,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, damaged most of the infrastructure, and displaced the majority of the population.

Last week, the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the US issued a joint statement calling on the Israeli government and Hamas to resume talks amid rising growing fears of a regional war following the assassination of key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

In recent days, tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, who have traded attacks across the Lebanon-Israel border since 7 October, rose to new levels after Israel assassinated the group's top military commander Fouad Shukur in a strike on south Beirut on Wednesday.

Israel's assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this month, a day after the strike in Beirut, also exacerbated tensions between the two countries to new levels with the Iranian regime vowing to retaliate against Israel.

This prompted the US and other Tel Aviv allies to mobilize to defend Israel.

Various governments have called on their nationals to evacuate Lebanon, and many airlines have cancelled flights to and from Lebanese and Israeli airports.

Meanwhile, the Houthi militias continued targeting all Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting navigation and commerce in the vital international waters.