'Israeli' government confirms delegation team leaving for Egypt for negotiations

'Israel' announced on Sunday that its negotiation team will head to Egypt later in the day to engage in indirect talks with Hamas, scheduled to start on Monday.

Government spokeswoman Shosh Badrosian told reporters, "The team will be leaving tonight, with plans for talks to begin tomorrow," adding that the discussions are "technical" in nature.

Meanwhile, 'Israeli' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that 'Israel' will only begin implementing the 21-clause post-war plan proposed by US President Donald Trump after all 'Israeli' captives held in Gaza have been returned, and he insisted that the Palestinian Authority will have no role in governing the territory, Israel Hayom reported.

Speaking at a forum, Netanyahu made clear that the release of captives is the nonnegotiable first step. He said, "we will not proceed to any of the 21 clauses of the Trump plan until the first clause – the release of all the hostages, living and deceased, until the last of the hostages, every single one of them, has crossed into Israeli territory – we will not proceed to any other clause."

Netanyahu further insisted that Gaza’s future governance must exclude both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. "The Palestinian Authority will not govern Gaza the day after. No representative of Hamas and no representative of the Palestinian Authority will be involved in controlling the Gaza Strip," he said, adding that "Israel will be responsible and involved in the demilitarization of weapons in the Strip."

The Prime Minister warned that failure to meet the US deadline for captive releases would prompt a return to large-scale military operations. "If the hostages are not released by the deadline that President Donald Trump set – Israel will return to fighting with the full support of all the involved countries," he said.