CIA Director Burns visits Cairo as Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations continue

CIA Director Bill Burns is in Cairo amid intensive negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage deal, a person familiar with the matter says.

CIA Director Bill Burns is in Cairo amid intensive negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israel-Hamas war, a person familiar with the matter says. Burns has acted as a key interlocutor for the United States in the multiparty talks between Israel, Hamas, Egypt and Qatar over a release of hostages held in Gaza that would be paired with a temporary ceasefire. Hamas is currently weighing a new framework proposed by Egypt that calls for the group to release as many as 33 hostages kidnapped from Israel in exchange for a pause in hostilities in Gaza, an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations and a foreign diplomatic source told CNN earlier this week. Burns has been dispatched during previous rounds of talks as they reached intensive stages, only to see them later collapse. American officials are hopeful a new proposal will be accepted by Hamas but acknowledge the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, will need to sign off. On Thursday, the White House said it had not yet received a response from Hamas on the proposal. Communication with Sinwar, believed to be inside Gaza, has at times been difficult. American officials have been pressing Hamas to accept the terms of the deal, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described this week as “very generous.”