CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — Hamas negotiators in Cairo have received a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza calling for an initial 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches, a Palestinian official said Monday.

“The proposal is a framework agreement to launch negotiations on a permanent ceasefire,” the official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.

The official said that “Hamas will hold internal consultations among its leadership” and with leaders of other Palestinian factions to review the proposal from mediators.

Last week, the Palestinian group said a senior delegation was in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on efforts to secure an elusive ceasefire in war, now in its 23rd month.

Together with Qatar and the United States, Egypt has been involved in mediation between Israel and militant group Hamas that has failed to secure a breakthrough since a short-lived truce earlier this year.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, visiting the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday, said that “as we speak now, there are Palestinian and Qatari delegations present on Egyptian soil working to intensify efforts to put an end to the systematic killing and starvation.”

Last week, Abdelatty said that Cairo was working with Qatar and the United States (US) to broker a 60-day truce “with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions.”

More than two weeks of negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha ended last month with no breakthrough.

Lebanon disarms Hezbollah

Meanwhile, US envoy Tom Barrack on Monday called on Israel to honor commitments under a ceasefire that ended its war with Hezbollah, after the Lebanese government launched a process to disarm the militant group.

Under the November truce agreement, weapons in Lebanon were to be restricted to the state and Israel was to fully withdraw its troops from the country, although it has kept forces at five border points it deems strategic.

“I think the Lebanese government has done their part. They’ve taken the first step. Now what we need is Israel to comply,” Barrack said following a meeting in Beirut with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

Asked by reporters about whether he expected to see Israel fully withdraw from Lebanese territory, Barrack said that “that’s exactly the next step” needed.

To the US diplomat, “the next step is we need participation on the part of Israel, and we need an economic plan for prosperity, restoration and renovation” in Lebanon, weighed down by dire political and economic crises in recent years.

Barrack said Washington was “in the process of now discussing with Israel what their position is,” adding that “in the next few weeks you’re going to see progress on all sides.”

“It means a better life for the people... and at least the beginning of a roadway to a different kind of dialogue” in the region, he said.

The US diplomat’s visit comes less than two weeks after Lebanon’s cabinet tasked the army with developing a plan to disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah by the end of the year — an unprecedented step since civil war factions gave up their weapons decades ago.

A second cabinet meeting on 7 August tackled a US proposal that includes a timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament, with Washington pressing Lebanon to take action on the matter.