According to an Israeli official, a mid-level Israeli delegation will visit Cairo to evaluate Hamas’ position.

Hours after Israeli tanks seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the visit to the Egyptian capital is scheduled to occur.

A senior Israeli official stated that Israel rejected the current plan and that a team of mid-ranking Israeli officials would be visiting Cairo in the coming hours to see if Hamas can be convinced to modify their most recent ceasefire offer.

The envoys in this delegation are at the mid-level. “The principals, who are senior officials from the intelligence services Mossad and Shin Bet leading the Israeli side, would be leading the delegation if a credible deal were in the offing,” the person told Reuters.

Hours after Israeli tanks seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the visit to the Egyptian capital is scheduled to occur.

Israeli jets have carried out repeated strikes on eastern Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than 1 million Palestinians displaced by the seven-month war have been sheltering.

Egyptian officials have ordered Israel to halt the Rafah operation immediately, according to state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV, which also stated that efforts were still being made to minimise the escalation between the two sides.

In a statement, Hamas claimed that the operation was intended to jeopardise talks at a truce.

The Israeli official, who requested anonymity, claimed that Hamas was compelled to release its most recent proposal quickly due to Israel’s evident will to take action against Rafah.

The plan went to “unacceptable extremes,” according to the official, taking the basic structure of a proposal from April 27 that called for an end to hostilities and the release of some of the more than 130 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian inmates held in Israel.

Another official, however, said that Hamas had accepted the phased ceasefire and hostage-release agreement that Israel had put up on April 27 with only small modifications that had no bearing on the proposal’s essential elements.

The new demand would prevent Israel from using its veto power to block the release of some Palestinian inmates, such as Fatah commander Marwan Barghouti, who is serving a life term for his part in organising deadly assaults against Israelis.

“Hamas wants them all to be eligible and for Israel to have no say in the matter,” claimed the official.

Additionally, it would remove limitations on the entry of items known as dual use, which may be applied to both military and civilian applications, into Gaza. “Hamas says these should be allowed in for the rehabilitation of Gaza, but we know that their intention is to manufacture munitions.”

Furthermore, instead of the 33 captives that would have been freed under earlier plans, Hamas was now willing to release only 18 of them in the first phase of a truce, with the remaining hostages to be released in a later phase.

“That means Israel would get only 18 hostages if it sticks to its refusal to call off the offensive,” added the official.

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