Palestinian children queue at a water distribution point in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.AFP
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, said lower level “working teams” will remain in Cairo to meet with mediators the United States, Qatar, and Egypt in hopes to addressing remaining disagreements.
The official called the recent conversations, which began Thursday in Cairo and continued through Sunday, as “constructive” and said all parties were working to “reach a final and implementable agreement.”
The talks included CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. A Hamas delegation was briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but did not directly take part in negotiations.
The development came after Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah traded heavy fire early Sunday but backed off from sparking a widely feared all-out war, as both sides signaled their most intense exchange in months was over.
Hezbollah claimed to hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv as part of a barrage of hundreds of rockets and drones, and Israel claimed its dozens of strikes had been preemptive to avert a larger attack. Neither offered evidence.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the attack, a response to Israel’s killing of a top commander in Beirut last month, had been delayed to give the Gaza cease-fire talks a chance, and so fellow " Axis of Resistance" groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once. Israeli and U.S. military deployment also played a role.
“We will now reserve the right to respond at a later time” if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient, Nasrallah said, adding that allied Houthi rebels in Yemen -- and Iran itself -- had yet to respond. But he told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.”
Israel and Hezbollah said they aimed only at military targets. Israel said no military target was hit by Hezbollah but that one soldier with its navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire, or by shrapnel from one. Two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from an allied group were killed, the groups said.
A Hamas official said on Sunday the group's delegation left Cairo after meeting with Egyptian and Qatari mediators trying to negotiate a ceasefire.
"The Hamas delegation left Cairo tonight, after meeting with Egyptian and Qatari mediators who briefed them on the results of the latest negotiations," Izzat al-Rishq, said in a statement.
"Hamas reiterates its readiness to implement" the Biden plan, Rishq said on Sunday.
On Sunday, Rishq reiterated several of Hamas's long-standing demands for any ceasefire agreement, in particular the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
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