Ammon News - CIA director Bill Burns is expected to travel to Cairo next week for meetings with Egyptian officials about the efforts to launch negotiations over a new deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, two U.S. and Israeli officials say, according to Axios.

U.S. officials say the White House acknowledges that a hostage deal is the only way to get a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden said in televised remarks on Thursday that he is pushing hard for a deal.

Burns has been President Biden's point person in the efforts to secure a hostage deal and a pause in fighting. Sending him to Cairo puts pressure on Qatari and Egyptian mediators to press Hamas to agree to a reasonable deal.

Israel on Thursday told Egyptian and Qatari mediators that while it rejects most of Hamas' demands in its response to the latest hostage deal proposal, it is ready to launch negotiations based on the original proposal put forth two weeks ago, Israeli official previously told Axios.

That proposal was centered on a framework for a three-phase deal that included a six-week ceasefire and the release of a set number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas freeing 35 to 40 Israeli hostages in the first stage.

Hamas in its initial response to the plan laid out several demands, including multiple nonstarters for Israel.

U.S. officials, however, have expressed some optimism and said that while there are still major gaps between the parties, Hamas' response provides an opening for negotiations on a new deal.