CAIRO, April 28. /TASS/. A Hamas delegation will visit the Egyptian capital city of Cairo on April 29 to discuss a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Reuters said, adding a source in the Palestinian movement.

According to the source, the delegation will discuss the latest proposal on a deal with Israel advanced by the mediators and Israel’s response to it.

Egypt’s Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya television channel confirmed these reports. It also said that the Hamas delegation will be led by Hamas senior official Khalil al-Hayya. It will present the movement’s response to the proposal it received the day before.

The Saudi El-Ekhbariya television channel reported on April 27 that top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, as well as representatives from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Palestine met in Riyadh for another round of consultations on the settlement of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Several hours ahead of the meeting, it was reported that Egypt had handed over to Hamas a proposal, agreed upon with the Israeli side, that provided for the release of from 20 too 40 hostages held by radicals in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a ceasefire in the enclave. According to an Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya source, the deal with Israel is likely to be reached "within several days, even despite some reservations."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip.