Hamas said on Saturday that it is reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, as Egypt intensified its efforts to reach an agreement to end the months-long war and address a potential Israeli ground attack on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, stated that the Palestinian movement is examining the Israeli proposal, and “after completing its review, it will provide its response.”

Details about the Israeli offer were not disclosed, but he mentioned that it was a response to a proposal made by Hamas two weeks ago. Earlier negotiations this month focused on a six-week ceasefire proposal and the release of 40 civilian and sick hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas statement came hours after a high-level Egyptian delegation concluded its visit to Israel, where it discussed a “new vision” for a long-term ceasefire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss developments freely.

It was not immediately clear whether Israel's recent response to Hamas regarding the ceasefire was directly related to the Egyptian mediators’ visit to Tel Aviv on Friday.

The Egyptian official stated that discussions between Egyptian and Israeli officials focused on the first phase of a multi-phase plan that includes a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a large number of Palestinian displaced persons to their homes in northern Gaza, “with minimal restrictions.”

The official added that the mediators are working to reach a compromise that addresses most of the main demands of both sides, which could pave the way for continued negotiations aimed at reaching a broader agreement to end the war.

As the war continues and human casualties rise, international pressure on Hamas and Israel is increasing to reach a ceasefire agreement and avoid a potential Israeli attack on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have taken refuge after fleeing fighting in other parts of the territory.

Israel has insisted for months that it plans to launch a ground assault on Rafah at the border with Egypt, where it says many remaining Hamas militants are holed up, despite calls for restraint from the international community including the United States, Israel's strongest ally.

Egypt has warned that an attack on Rafah could have “catastrophic consequences” for the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as for regional peace and security.

The Israeli military has mobilized dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in southern Israel near Rafah and has been targeting locations in the city with almost daily airstrikes.

Early on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, killing six people, including four children, according to officials at a local hospital.

The strike resulted in the deaths of a man, his wife, and their three children, aged 12, 10, and 8, according to records from the Abu Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital morgue. The records showed that a four-month-old baby of a neighbor was also killed.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men in a gunfight at a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the army announced.

Violence has erupted in the West Bank since the war began, and since then, 491 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the sector, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

The Israeli army said the two men were killed after they opened fire from a vehicle at Israeli forces stationed at the Salem checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin.

The United States has criticized Israeli policies in the West Bank, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday, recently determined that a military unit committed human rights violations there prior to the Gaza war.

On Friday, Hamas said it is open to any “ideas or proposals” that take into account the needs of the Palestinian people, such as halting Israeli attacks on Gaza, the return of displaced persons to their homes, and Israeli withdrawal.

The Palestinian group stated that it would not back down from its demand for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, which Israel has rejected.

Israel says it will continue its military operations until Hamas is defeated and that it will maintain a security presence in Gaza afterward.

Hamas sparked the war with its attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli air and ground assault, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, about two-thirds of them being children and women. The ministry announced on Saturday that 32 people killed in Israeli strikes were transported to local hospitals in the last 24 hours.

Israel announced that at least 260 soldiers have been killed since the start of ground operations in Gaza.