Abbas Kamel, the minister of Egypt’s intelligence, has reached out to the leaderships of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to discuss the resumption of negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal with Israel, according to Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, Al Jazeera reports.

According to Al-Akhbar, Kamel requested the two parties to “urgently” send a delegation to Egypt.

“Communication also took place with the Qatari side, which the US had previously asked to put pressure on Hamas to accept a phased exchange plan, but that was rejected by the Hamas political leadership,” the newspaper said.