"We are going to Cairo with a positive spirit to reach an agreement," Hamas said in a statement, assuring its determination, along with other Palestinian groups, to obtain "a total cessation of Israeli aggression," the "withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces" and "a serious agreement for the exchange" of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that a delegation led by Khalil al-Haya, a member of the political bureau, will be in Cairo on Saturday morning "to continue negotiations on the ceasefire".

The mediators - Egypt, Qatar and the United States - are awaiting in Cairo Hamas's response to a truce proposal presented at the end of April, which includes a pause in the Israeli offensive and the release of detained Palestinians in exchange for the release of hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement on 7 October in southern Israel, which triggered the war.

Hamas had previously accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to obstruct efforts for a truce in the devastating war in Gaza, fuelling doubts about a rapid ceasefire agreement.

In the seventh month of war, the daily Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip continue, threatened by hunger.

The attacks, which caused 26 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, mainly targeted Rafah, a city in the south of the Palestinian territory located where Netanyahu wants to launch a ground intervention to annihilate the last brigades of the Palestinian Islamic movement.

For Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas's political bureau, Netanyahu's statements about an attack on Rafah "clearly aim to make any possibility of an agreement unfeasible".

Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, maintains its criticisms before any agreement, a definitive ceasefire and a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel refuses this proposal.

The most recent statements cast doubt on the rapid conclusion of an agreement with a view to a ceasefire, despite the efforts of the international community, especially the United States, Israel's main ally.

During a visit to the Middle East this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed to Hamas to accept the transit offer and also urged Israel to abandon the intervention in Rafah, where around 1.2 million Palestinians live, most of them displaced.

The UN and many countries say they fear for the civilian population in the event of an Israeli attack and the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that "a large-scale military operation in Rafah could lead to a bloodbath".

International aid, controlled by Israel, reaches few, mainly from Egypt through Rafah, but continues to be very insufficient given the immense needs of around 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza.

Faced with difficulties in delivering aid by road, several countries are airdropping food into Gaza. But today, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defence, Mahmoud Bassal, revealed that packages fell on civilians, killing one and injuring several.

Also today, the Israeli government confirmed the death of hostage Dror Or, a Portuguese national whose two children, also kidnapped during the Hamas attack, were released at the end of November, during the only truce since the beginning of the war.

The President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Portuguese government and the Israeli ambassador in Lisbon, Dor Shapira, lamented the death of Dror Or.

Read Also: Young man who was believed to be a Hamas hostage found dead in Israel (Portuguese version)