Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send Israeli delegations to Egypt and Qatar, where negotiators are trying to secure the release of Israeli hostages as part of a possible ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli prime minister’s office said today.

The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu had held talks with the heads of Israel’s Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence services and “approved that delegations representing them will go to Doha and Cairo in the coming days” with orders to proceed with the negotiations. .

Israeli airstrikes and shelling have flattened large parts of the densely populated Gaza Strip and killed more than 32,000 Palestinians as the war with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rages on.

Thousands more are believed to be buried in the rubble, while more than 80% of the 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes, with many at risk of starvation.

The war broke out when Hamas gunmen invaded southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli officials.