An Israeli negotiating team departed for Cairo on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, as Jerusalem continued its efforts to reach a deal with Hamas for an extension of the ceasefire deal and the release of additional hostages.

Negotiators were meeting with senior Egyptian officials, Netanyahu’s office said, after a team returned from Doha on Friday following an unsuccessful round of talks.

The talks in Doha appeared to hit a gridlock after Hamas announced on Friday that it was willing to release US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, along with the bodies of four others with dual Israeli-US citizenship, in what appeared to be a rejection of a bridge proposal put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The offer was dismissed by both Israel and the US as disingenuous, and Witkoff charged that the terror group was “claiming flexibility” in public while making “impractical” demands in private.

The US envoy warned during CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that there would be consequences for Hamas if it does not accept his bridge proposal for the ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The terror group’s counter-offer, he said, was a “non-starter.”

“I think there’s an opportunity for them,” he said of the terror group and its chance to negotiate for an extension of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, “but the opportunity is closing fast.”

He pointed to the massive strikes that the US carried out against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen over the weekend, arguing that they demonstrated “where we stand with regard to terrorism and our tolerance level for terrorist actions.”

“I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible than how they have been,” he added.

Turning to the US’s efforts to extend the truce in Gaza and free more hostages after the first phase of a fragile agreement came to an end earlier this month, Witkoff said he spent seven and a half hours in meetings with negotiators in Doha on Wednesday.

Those talks led to the crafting of a “bridge proposal,” he said, confirming for the first time that it would ensure the release of five living Israeli hostages, including Alexander, in exchange for “a substantial amount of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, which would be a wonderful thing for these Palestinian families.”

The details of the deal offered by Witkoff appeared in line with those........

© The Times of Israel