between Israel and Hamas in a deal to pause the fighting in Gaza and free Israeli hostages, Egyptian officials said, after a crucial meeting in Paris helped revive stalled negotiations.
The mediators’ main challenge is to produce an agreement convincing Hamas that a permanent cease-fire is eventually possible at the end of a humanitarian pause, while allowing Israel to avoid any such commitment, the officials said.
Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns met Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Mossad chief David Barnea in Paris on Friday after weeks of stalemate. Burns was instrumental in securing a weeklong cease-fire in November that freed more than 100 Israeli hostages in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners and a brief pause in fighting.
The latest meeting came after Israeli officials said there was a chance of progress in the talks. Hamas also had indicated to Egyptian officials it could be flexible in its demands for the release of more Palestinian prisoners in return for Israeli hostages.
Further talks between the teams will continue in the coming week as mediators race to reach a deal that would help avert an imminent Israeli ground operation in Rafah, the city in the southern Gaza Strip where more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians are sheltering. Israeli officials have set a deadline of the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, around March 10, for Hamas to release hostages the group seized during the Oct. 7 attacks that killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.