TEL AVIV, August 3. /TASS/. An Israeli delegation has arrived in Cairo to again negotiate a deal on hostages held by radicals in the Gaza Strip and on a ceasefire, the Ynet website said.

According to the website, the Israeli delegation is headed by Mossad Director David Barnea and Ronen Bar, head of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA, known as Shin Bet).

In late July, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, told TASS that Israel was eager to go back to the negotiating table to try to secure the return of all the Gaza hostages. On July 28, CIA Director William Burns met with representatives of Israel, Egypt and Qatar in Rome in an attempt to clinch a deal on a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza. On the same day, Barnea returned from Rome to Israel. The prime minister’s office said that the talks would be continued in the coming days.

On May 31, US President Joe Biden announced his three-phase Israel-Palestine ceasefire plan, with each phase lasting six weeks. The plan envisages a complete ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian inmates from Israeli prisons.