Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Paris on Friday for a new round of hostage talks with the CIA director, the Qatari prime minister, and an Egyptian spy chief, Axios reported Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Mossad chief David Barnea could be one of the arbiters headed for Paris. CIA Director Bill Burns will be among the group in Paris, according to reports.

The report came after U.S. envoy Brett McGurk's visit to Israel urging the country to send a contingent, given progress made with the Hamas terrorists.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators told Israel on Wednesday that Hamas was slowly shifting its positions, allowing for some "flexibility" in hostage talks, according to All Israel News. A senior Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo on Tuesday to continue the negotiations ahead of McGurk's meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

The Post reported that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant assured McGurk, President Joe Biden's top Middle East adviser, that Israel "will widen the mandate for the officials involved in the negotiation on the hostages." Israeli negotiators had been instructed only to listen in previous talks.

However, Gallant also said that the Israel Defense Forces "will continue to expand its ground operation in Gaza," according to the Post.

Biden administration officials have been putting pressure on Israel to engage, with an eye toward having a cease-fire/hostages deal in place before the start of Ramadan in three weeks, Axios reported. The Biden administration is pushing for a six-week pause as part of the three-phrase deal.

At issue, however, is that Hamas is pressing for the release of more Palestinian prisoners than Israel is comfortable with, according to Axios.

Hamas is still holding 134 Israeli hostages, six of whom have U.S. citizenship. McGurk met with the families of the six.

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