JERUSALEM (AP) — A US official said last night that mediators were preparing for a possible ceasefire and hostage-release deal in Gaza, in a sign that they believed an agreement to end the ten-month Israel-Hamas war might be imminent.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the proposal on the table basically bridged every gap between Israel and Hamas and mediators were making preparations before a final agreement was approved.

It was unclear what measures were being taken, but the official said that a new “implementation cell” was being established in Cairo in preparation.

The cell would focus on the agreement’s logistics, including releasing hostages, providing humanitarian aid for Gaza and monitoring that the terms of the deal were met, the official said.

The comments come after mediators expressed hope for an imminent deal.

They said two days of talks had wrapped up in Qatar and that they planned to reconvene in Cairo next week to seal an agreement to stop the fighting.

Israel issued a vague statement saying it appreciated the mediators’ efforts, and a statement from Hamas did not sound enthusiastic about the latest proposed deal to end the devastating war and free Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

A ceasefire is seen as the best hope for heading off an even larger regional conflict.

But US president Joe Biden seemed optimistic and said the sides were closer than they had ever been to an agreement.

Biden has expressed optimism for a deal before, only for talks to break down.

“We may have something,” Biden told reporters yesterday. “But we’re not there yet.”

Both sides agreed in principle to the plan Biden announced on May 31. But Hamas has proposed amendments and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to tank a deal.

The US official said yesterday that the latest proposal was the same as Biden’s with some clarifications based on ongoing talks. The official added that the way it was structured posed no risk to Israel’s security but enhanced it.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to try to root out militants.

Hamas quickly cast doubt on whether an agreement was within reach.

In a statement, the militant group said the latest proposal diverged significantly from the previous iteration they had agreed to in principle, implying they were not disposed to accept it.

The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement saying it “appreciates the efforts of the US and the mediators to dissuade Hamas from its refusal to a hostage-release deal”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to travel to Israel over the weekend to “continue intensive diplomatic efforts” to reach a ceasefire and to underscore the need for all parties in the region to avoid escalation, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

Blinken was expected to meet Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday to discuss the new deal, said an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The new push for an end to the Israel-Hamas war came as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities, and fears remained high that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.

International mediators believe the best hope for calming tensions would be a deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the fighting and secure the release of Israeli hostages.

International diplomacy to prevent the war from spreading intensified yesterday, with the British and French foreign ministers making a joint trip to Israel.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said in a statement that he had told his British and French counterparts that if Iran attacked Israel, Israel expected its allies not just to help it defend itself, but to join in attacking Iran.

He also warned Iran — which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, all of whom have attacked Israel since the Gaza war started — to stop the attacks.

“Iran is the head of the Axis of Eevil and the free world must stop it now before it’s too late,” Katz said on X.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza.

More than 100 hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza, although Israeli authorities believe around a third of them are dead.

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said on Thursday that Israel had killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants in Gaza in the war, without providing evidence.

Diplomats hoped a ceasefire deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas’s top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.

The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

While talks were ongoing, Israel continued its offensive in Gaza.

It dropped leaflets asking civilians to evacuate from areas in northern Khan Younis and eastern Deir al-Balah. It said forces planned to respond to rocket fire that targeted Israel.

After the orders were given, airstrikes hit some areas of Khan Younis, and people fled. A video showed plumes of black smoke rising into the air after loud booms.

Egypt president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spoke to Biden and agreed to intensify joint efforts in the coming days to reach an agreement. El-Sisi also urged regional self-restraint.

In a clear message to Israel, Hezbollah released a video, with Hebrew and English subtitles, showing underground tunnels where trucks were transporting long-range missiles.

A Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was speaking about military affairs, said the missiles in the video had a range of about 86 miles, capable of reaching deep inside Israel.

Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones that the group said give it the ability to hit anywhere in Israel. Hezbollah started attacking Israel on October 8 and said it would only stop when the Gaza war ends.