Following American pressure after the visit by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Israel, the Israeli prime minister finally decided to dispatch the Israeli delegation to the Egyptian capital to discuss the next phase of the deal, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reports from Amman, Jordan.

“However, there’s a lot of talk in Israel about not going to the second phase. Discussions happened within the Israeli security cabinet last night, where there was no consensus about how to move forward.

“But according to Israeli media, the prime minister wants to extend phase one rather than going to phase two. And there’s been a lot of talk about going back to fighting,” she said.

The Americans have given Israel whatever guarantees they want. The US president has said Israel can do whatever it wants about the ceasefire and a return to the offensive, she said.

“But a new survey done by Israel’s Channel 12 shows that 61 per cent of respondents want to continue with the ceasefire deal and release as many Israeli captives as possible.

“Now, there are talks behind the scenes about Israel getting the US involved to pressure mediators to release more captives who are alive and return bodies of those killed,” Salhut said.