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Israeli delegation back from Cairo, Netanyahu office’s adviser tells TASS

Radio Kan said that at the talks in Cairo, the situation on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was tackled

TEL AVIV, August 3. /TASS/. The Israeli delegation, led by Mossad Director David Barnea and Israeli Security Agency (ISA) Director Ronen Bar, came back from Cairo where they had held talks with mediators on the Gaza hostage release, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, told TASS.

"The Mossad and Shabak (ISA - TASS) chiefs have come back from Cairo, where they talked with international mediators about the return of Israeli hostages," he said, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, Radio Kan said that at the talks in Cairo, the situation on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was tackled. Earlier, the radio station claimed that in the Egyptian capital the delegations would focus on the Philadelphi Corridor, which is a strip of land at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip between the Palestinian enclave and Egypt.

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.