Steven Witkoff, who played an important role in brokering the truce between Israel and Hamas, was expected to meet with Israel’s prime minister and to visit Gaza.

Hamas officials accused Israel on Wednesday of delaying aid deliveries to Gaza and jeopardising a truce and hostage release deal, an allegation Israel dismissed as "fake news."Since a ceasefire in the war in Gaza took effect on January 19,

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said the U.S. wanted a ceasefire deal in Gaza and all remaining captives released before Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Some troops had been expected to withdraw to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to go home. But Israel said the hostage exchange before that step had not gone as agreed. Hamas accused Israel of stalling.

Throughout the war, the Israeli military had barred Palestinians from returning to the north by severing Gaza along the Netzarim corridor, a belt that runs east to west across the strip where troops cleared out the Palestinian population and set up bases.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has handed over to mediators a list showing that 25 Israeli hostages are still alive, out of 33 scheduled for release, an official of the group told Reuters on Monday.

Hamas has told Israel that eight of 26 Israeli hostages set to be released as part of the first phase of the ceasefire are dead, according to a Middle Eastern official briefed on the matter. New York Giants owner John Mara told GM Joe Schoen how he felt if Saquon Barkley signed in Philadelphia.

The Islamist group Hamas said Monday that eight of 33 hostages to be released from the Gaza Strip in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement with Israel are dead. Twenty-five of them are still alive,