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12 May 2024

With pressure rising for a cease-fire, Netanyahu meets with the C.I.A. director

Aaron Boxerman and Julian E. Barnes 

Negotiators from Israel and Hamas were in Cairo on Wednesday amid a renewed international push on a proposed deal for a cease-fire, though Israeli officials said that major gaps remained between the sides.

In a sign of the growing urgency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with William J. Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on Wednesday afternoon in Israel, according to an Israeli official who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

Mr. Burns has been shuttling across the region in recent days in an attempt to clinch a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The Israeli delegations arrived on Tuesday, hours after Israeli tanks and troops went into the southern Gaza city of Rafah and seized control of the border crossing with Egypt, disrupting the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave.

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