Liam Conner
CIA Director William Burns arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday for the latest round of high-stakes talks on a hostage agreement and ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, two U.S. officials told CBS News and a source familiar with the matter.
The visit follows a series of technical talks and a new proposal from Israel that US officials described as “generous”.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Egyptian intelligence officials, along with senior Qatari and US negotiators, have for months been facilitating the talks, which in recent weeks have taken on new urgency amid an imminent Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than 1 .4 million Palestinians are sheltered.
Burns’ arrival signals that negotiators may be approaching a critical window that could be decisive for a possible agreement. It was not immediately clear whether Israeli and Qatari negotiators were expected to join Burns in Cairo, as they have in previous rounds.
A person familiar with the progress of the negotiations said there had been “some progress” but the parties were still in a wait-and-see mode.
The CIA declined to comment on Burns’ trip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had “nothing to say.”
American officials have publicly warned against an invasion of Rafah without a credible humanitarian plan. Earlier this week, Netanyahu said Israel would invade the city regardless of whether a hostage deal was reached or not.
Speaking from Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US position on Rafah was “clear” and would not change.
“We cannot and will not support a major military operation in Rafah in the absence of an effective plan to ensure that civilians are not harmed, and no, we have not seen such a plan,” Blinken said.
He also urged Hamas to put the agreement on the table: “There is no time for delay. There is no time for more negotiations. The agreement is there. They should accept it.”
Negotiations have encountered repeated obstacles in recent weeks over the number and type of hostages to be released and the length of the pause in hostilities.
Hamas militants took more than 240 hostages and killed more than 1,200 Israelis during the deadly attack on southern Israel in October 7, 2023. Israel’s retaliatory military response, now in its sixth month, has resulted in the deaths of more than 34,000 Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.
It is believed that 133 hostages are still being held in Gaza and five of those missing are US citizens. Last week Hamas released proof-of-life videos for two of the Americans, Hersh Goldberg Polin and Keith Siegel. In the propaganda videos, the two hostages are seen speaking on camera under duress. Siegel pressured the Israeli government to make a deal.
The Israeli government has become increasingly concerned in recent days about the possibility of the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, for possible war crimes in Gaza.
In an interview with Norah O’Donnell of CBS News last month, Burns, a former diplomat and veteran negotiator, said the months-long negotiations were like “pushing a very large rock up a very steep hill“, although he said the US believes Hamas was “capable of releasing several hostages right now”.
“I think the region desperately needs this kind of ceasefire,” Burns said.
Arden Farhi, Justine Redman and Camilla Schick contributed to this report.
