British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said after a Middle East tour that progress has been made towards a deal to halt fighting in Gaza, bring in more aid and release Israeli hostages held there, Reuters reports.

In an interview in Istanbul, his last stop on the tour, Cameron said that Israel is considering a British proposal to open its Ashdod port to aid shipments to Gaza but that it would “take a lot of pushing” to reach an agreement.

“Achieving a pause where we stop the fighting and start looking at how to get aid in and hostages out, I think there is a prospect of that,” Cameron told Reuters and a Turkish broadcaster.

“That’s what I’ve been in the region talking about. And I think we are making some progress.”