Hostage-ceasefire deal talks stall over new Netanyahu demands, Israeli officials say

• A high-level Israeli delegation headed by the directors of Israel's Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies visited Cairo on Saturday for talks with Egyptian officials about a deal to release hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza and to establish a ceasefire in the enclave, three sources with direct knowledge told Axios.
• Israeli officials and families of hostages are concerned Netanyahu, who recently toughened his demands and presented new conditions for a hostage and ceasefire deal, sent the delegation only to create an appearance of negotiations to relieve some of the pressure from President Biden.
• Hamas rejected Netanyahu's new conditions, which include forming an international mechanism to prevent weapons transfers from southern Gaza to the north. Israeli officials say this and other new demands are making a deal impossible.
• The talks on Saturday did not lead to a breakthrough, two Israeli officials said.

Driving the news: Biden held a tough phone call with Netanyahu on Thursday and complained that the two had just spoken last week in the Oval Office about securing the hostage deal, but instead Netanyahu went ahead with the assassination in Tehran.

• Biden told Netanyahu he must stop escalating tensions in the region and move immediately toward a deal.
• "All parties must stop taking escalatory actions and find reasons to come to an agreement, not to look for reasons to delay or say no to the agreement," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press conference in Mongolia on Thursday, hinting at Netanyahu and his new demands.

Behind the scenes: The three sources said the director of Mossad David Barnea and the director of Shin Bet Ronen Bar were originally supposed to travel to Cairo on Thursday and hold a meeting with the director of Egyptian intelligence Abbas Kamel.

• But after Haniyeh's assassination on Wednesday morning, both the Egyptians and the Israelis wanted to postpone the meeting until after the Hamas leader's funeral in Qatar, the sources said.
• Biden's top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk, who visited Cairo on Thursday and met Kamel, pressed both the Egyptians and the Israelis to reschedule the meeting as soon as possible and continue negotiations on the hostage and ceasefire deal despite the assassination.
• Qatari officials were not present at the meeting, mainly due to political sensitivities around the assassination, the sources said.

State of play: The talks in Cairo on Saturday also focused on security issues directly related to the hostage and ceasefire deal, such as the new security arrangements along the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent arms smuggling to Hamas, the sources said.

• The Israeli government coordinator for the West Bank and Gaza, Gen. Ghassan Alian, joined the delegation in order to discuss with the Egyptians how to re-open the Raffah crossing for movement of people — another condition for the implementation of the hostage deal.

The big picture: Barnea, Bar and other senior Israeli security and intelligence officials who are involved in the negotiations over the hostage and ceasefire deal are convinced Netanyahu decided he doesn't want to move forward with the deal regardless of the impression he gave Biden during his visit to the Oval Office 10 days ago, Israeli officials say.

• Israeli's Channel 12 reported on Friday that Netanyahu held a difficult meeting with the Israeli negotiations team on Wednesday that escalated into a shouting match.
• Two Israeli officials confirmed the details of the report and said the director of Shin Bet confronted Netanyahu and told him that if he wants to back away from the Israeli proposal for a hostage and ceasefire deal, he should just say it.
• Netanyahu replied by scolding the Israeli security and intelligence chiefs, calling them "weaklings" and accusing them of working for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's interests and pressing him (Netanyahu) rather than pressing Hamas.

What they're saying: The Israeli Prime Minister's office didn't deny the reports about Netanyahu's harsh words in the meeting but claimed the prime minister is not obstructing or preventing a deal.

• "Sinwar is the obstacle to the agreement and not the Prime Minister who is willing to go a long, long way to release our hostages who are dear to him, while maintaining Israel's security and preventing conditions that would allow Hamas to regain control of the Strip, threaten Israel, and return to commit the atrocities of October 7," Netanyahu's office said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with details about the talks in Cairo.