Israel and Hamas prepared for indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday, as hopes for a possible ceasefire began to build and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a truce and hostage release could take shape this week.

Last week, the Israeli military intercepted dozens of boats sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a separate Gaza-bound convoy. The participants, which included Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were detained by Israel and deported.

The talks began in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh with delegations from Egypt, Qatar and the United States as intermediaries.

Two years after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251, the war in Gaza has left over 67,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Negotiators from Hamas, Israel and the United States began indirect talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with President Donald Trump saying they were down to the “final details.”

Israel marks two years since Hamas's October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people as ceasefire negotiations continue in Egypt with cautious optimism.

President El Sisi has called Jerusalem 'the enemy' and is renewing ties with its other neighbors. But some military and economic are hard to break.

The new Egyptian and Jordanian trained Palestinian security forces will operate under a body of 15 Palestinian technocrats, to be overseen by the Tony Blair-led Council