Families of Israeli detainees constantly demonstrate to demand a deal to release their relatives (Anatolia)

Media sources quoted a senior American official - on Sunday - as talking about progress in prisoner exchange negotiations between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel, at a time when Washington insists on refusing to launch a ground military operation in Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip under the current circumstances.

Reuters quoted a senior official in US President Joe Biden's administration as saying that negotiators working on a framework of an agreement in several stages to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have achieved "real progress" over the past few weeks.

He added that this agreement was the main focus of a 45-minute phone call between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Sunday. The official pointed out that there are still some large gaps related to this agreement that must be filled.

Biden stressed - during the call - that the United States does not support, under the current circumstances, the implementation of Israeli military operations in Rafah, as about 1.3 million people are sheltering there, “and they have nowhere to go.”

For its part, NBC quoted an American official as saying that the gaps in the exchange deal are still large and all the details in the deal must be finalized, but he explained that “major progress in the deal to release the hostages in Gaza could happen this week.”

Torpedo the negotiations

For its part, Hamas said - on Sunday - that launching an Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah would undermine the possibility of releasing Israeli prisoners.

A leading source in the movement warned that the military operation would lead to “torpedoing negotiations” for the exchange of prisoners.

1.3 million Palestinians, or more than half of the population of the besieged Gaza Strip, are gathered in Rafah near the border with Egypt. The vast majority of them are displaced people who fled the Israeli aggression in the north and center of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, Netanyahu confirmed that he was continuing to launch the military operation in Rafah. He said in an interview with ABC News, "Victory is within reach. We will do it. We will control the last Hamas terrorist brigades, and Rafah, which is the last stronghold" of the movement.

Since the seventh of last October, the occupation army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has so far led to the fall of more than 28,000 martyrs, most of whom are women and children, and about 70,000 wounded, in addition to the destruction of the cities of the Strip and the displacement and starvation of its residents.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies