Hamas says it will not begin negotiations to release prisoners until Israel ends its war on Gaza.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said his country is ready to agree a new temporary ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza to ensure the release of more people Prisoners held by the Palestinian group.

“Israel is ready for a further humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian assistance to enable the release of hostages,” Herzog said at a meeting of ambassadors on Tuesday.

The comments come amid growing international pressure on Israel to end its attack on Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid into the besieged area.

An earlier Israel-Hamas deal brokered between Qatar and Egypt led to a week-long ceasefire in late November in which Hamas released 86 women and children it was holding in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers held in Israeli prisons. During the lull in fighting, Hamas also released 24 foreigners.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as the Gulf state’s foreign minister, Mossad Director David Barnea and CIA Director Bill Burns held talks in Poland on Monday to discuss a possible new deal that would include the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians secured in Israeli prisons and a humanitarian pause in fighting.

“The talks were positive, with negotiators examining and discussing various proposals to move negotiations forward,” a source briefed on the diplomatic effort told Reuters. “However, an agreement is not expected in the foreseeable future.”

Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that it rejected any form of prisoner exchange negotiations “in light of Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.”

The Palestinian group said it was open to any initiative that would help “end the aggression” and open border crossings “to bring aid and provide relief to the Palestinian people.”

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said Tuesday’s statements from Herzog and Hamas indicate progress toward a possible ceasefire.

“The question will be whether it is just that, a pause – a humanitarian pause – as the Israelis would call it, or a full ceasefire,” Smith said in a report from Tel Aviv.

The war has leveled large swaths of northern Gaza and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged territory, where many live in overcrowded shelters and tent camps. Around 1.9 million Palestinians – around 90 percent of Gaza’s population – have fled their homeland.

Since then, at least 19,667 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.

According to Israeli officials, Israel launched the attack on Gaza after Hamas militants from the territory stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 others hostage.

Israel faces growing international pressure to scale back its offensive as the civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip continues to rise.

France, the United Kingdom and Germany added their voices to calls for a ceasefire on Sunday, while US President Joe Biden last week called the bombing “indiscriminate”.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is expected to vote Later on Tuesday, he passed a resolution calling for an end to the fighting in Gaza.

Earlier, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called the war in Gaza a “moral failure” of the international community and called on Israel and Hamas to reach a new ceasefire to end the fighting.

“I spoke of moral failure because every day this continues is one more day that the international community is unable to end such high levels of suffering, and this will have repercussions for generations only in Gaza,” said ICRC President Mirjana Das, Spoljaric told reporters in Geneva after trips to the Gaza Strip and Israel.