TEL AVIV, July 28. /TASS/. David Barnea, director of Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence service, had retuned from Rome where he took part in a meeting on settling the situation in the Gaza Strip, however, talks on Gaza will continue in the coming days, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

"Mossad Director David Barnea has returned from his meeting with the mediators in Rome," it said. "At the meeting, the sides discussed the document with the clarifications regarding the draft agreement that was conveyed from Israel. The negotiations on the main issues will continue in the coming days."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a meeting with former US President Donald Trump in Florida on July 26 that he will send a team of negotiators to Rome to discuss the deal for the release of hostages held by radicals in the Gaza Strip. The Axios portal said on the same day, citing American and Israeli officials that CIA Director William Burns would meet with representatives of Israel, Egypt, and Qatar in Rome on July 28 to try to reach Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreements. According to Axios, the talks were not supposed to address details of a potential deal but were expected to focus on the future strategy.

On May 31, US President Joe Biden announced his three-phase Israel-Palestine ceasefire plan, with each phase lasting six weeks. The first stage envisages a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated localities in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian inmates from Israeli prisons. Apart from that, the parties are supposed to begin talks during this stage, with the ceasefire staying in place until they reach an agreement. Phase two provides for the release of all surviving hostages, including the military. The third stage will see the beginning of the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip.