Towards an impasse in the Middle East? The US compromise proposal designed to allow a hostage and cease-fire deal to be finalized next week leaves out an Israeli presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and a mechanism in central Gaza to prevent the return of armed forces of Hamas to the north of the Strip, as requested by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jewish media reported on Saturday, citing unnamed officials with knowledge of the talks.

Channel 12 reported that negotiations with the US and Israel are set to resume in Cairo on Sunday. Only if Israel and the US can agree terms on these two key issues will Egypt and Qatar pressure Hamas to move forward with a deal, the reports said. Hamas has made it clear that it does not will agree to a deal that satisfies these two Israeli demands.

Netanyahu, who has repeatedly insisted on those two issues in recent weeks, is expected to have a crucial discussion with Israel’s negotiators and security chiefs centered on those issues before Sunday’s talks begin in the Egyptian capital.

He is also scheduled to hold talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is due to visit Israel on Sunday.

In a statement issued late Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said Israeli negotiators had briefed him on the talks and “expressed ‘cautiously’ optimism about the possibility of advancing a deal.” It said the new US proposal, delivered to Israel and Hamas on Friday at the end of two days of talks between Israel and mediators in Doha, “contains elements that are acceptable to Israel”.

“It is to be hoped that the heavy pressure on Hamas by the United States and mediators will lead to the lifting of its opposition to the American proposal and will allow for significant progress in contacts,” the statement added.

The head of American diplomacy left yesterday, Saturday, evening from the United States for Israel, in the context of Washington’s new effort to achieve a cease-fire agreement in Gaza.

The US secretary of state, who flew in from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, is due to land in Tel Aviv and hold meetings with Israeli officials.

During his previous travels, Blinken had also visited Arab states in the region. No additional stations have been announced so far this time.

This is the ninth trip of Blinken in the Middle East following the attack by the Islamist Palestinian organization against Israel on 7 October.

This trip, for which the head of US diplomacy postponed his vacation, takes place after two days of negotiations in Doha with the aim of achieving a truce, as US President Joe Biden has requested.

US officials claimed progress had been made in the talks after a new compromise proposal, backed by Egypt and Qatar, was submitted on Friday.

Biden said on Friday that a “deal” was close, but Hamas responded by calling it a “delusion” and denouncing on Saturday, “American dictates.”

Hamas rejects any modified compromise proposal, and calls for the announced plan to be implemented by Biden in late May.

An American official admitted that the process is not in its “final phase” and said that diplomats are currently preparing an “implementation core” to quickly implement the terms of a possible agreement.

A ceasefire deal would be a major victory for Joe Biden as the Democratic Party prepares to convene in Chicago to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination for the November presidential election.