The Israeli delegation left the Egyptian capital after the ceasefire negotiations, according to the media

David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, met with the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns and discussed the Qatar-mediated plan to temporarily stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The talks, which were also attended by Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, were part of intensifying efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip before Israel launched a ground offensive on the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people have taken refuge. Palestinians fleeing the fighting.

Foreign governments and the United Nations are increasingly concerned about the potential victims of such an attack. But Israel vows to continue its assault on the Palestinian enclave until Hamas is destroyed.

The Israeli delegation returned from Cairo on Tuesday evening, an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told The Times of Israel.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Egyptian officials, that Mr. Barnea’s delegation left Cairo “without filling any of the key gaps in the negotiations.”

Egypt’s state-run Al Qahera TV channel, citing a senior Egyptian official, said the talks would continue for another three days.

The official added that the talks with the Israeli delegation were generally useful.

A Hamas source told AFP that a member of the group’s politburo would lead a delegation to meet Egyptian and Qatari intelligence chiefs in Cairo.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called these talks “constructive and moving in the right direction.”

“Nothing is done until everything is done,” he told reporters at the White House.

On October 7, when Hamas launched a brutal attack in southern Israel that sparked the war, the militants captured around 250 people. After a November truce that freed some of the hostages, about 130 people remain in the Gaza Strip, with 29 believed to be dead, according to Israeli officials.

The Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the enclave during Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive.