(Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to shift responsibility for a ceasefire and hostage-taking agreement onto Hamas on Sunday as the top U.S. diplomat arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a deal.

“We are in negotiations, not a scenario where we just give and give,” Netanyahu said on Sunday at the start of his cabinet meeting. “There are things we can be flexible on, and there are things we cannot be flexible on, and we will insist on them. We know very well how to distinguish between the two.”

While in Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to meet with Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, according to a senior State Department official. Blinken, who has made nine trips to the region since the conflict began, is traveling to Egypt on Tuesday.

During high-level negotiations at a two-day summit in Doha last week, Israel and the United States sought to bridge differences with Egyptian and Qatari politicians acting as mediators for Hamas. The talks are scheduled to continue in Cairo later this week, but no official date has been announced.

The war in the Palestinian enclave broke out after Hamas militants invaded southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people. Israel responded with an air and ground attack and more than 40,000 people died, according to health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

US officials have said efforts to reach an agreement to end the conflict are nearing their final stages, and Israeli negotiators over the weekend “expressed cautious optimism to the prime minister about the possibility of progress on the agreement in line with the updated American proposal,” according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

The proposal is very similar to an earlier three-phase plan unveiled by US President Joe Biden in May, which calls for a suspension of hostilities, the exchange of hostages for prisoners, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of Palestinian civilians to the northern Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu had previously insisted that the Israeli army should remain stationed in Gaza along the strategic Philadelphia and Netzarim corridors to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt and to prevent Hamas fighters from returning to northern Gaza along with civilians. Another sticking point in the talks was the number of Israeli hostages to be released in the first round of a Palestinian prisoner exchange.

In his statement on Sunday, Netanyahu also accused Hamas – which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union – of being “completely stubborn.” He said international pressure must be directed against Hamas and its main commander, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in Gaza.

Israel sent a “working team” to Cairo on Sunday in advance to set up the logistical framework for the next meeting of the key officials, according to a government official who wished to remain anonymous because the information involved was sensitive.

– With support from Dan Williams.

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