The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns will likely meet his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts as well as Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Rome over the weekend to discuss the Gaza ceasefire deal.

A source told Reuters that the meeting between Burns and the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs in the presence of Thani will take place on Sunday.

It comes as Israel seeks changes to a plan for a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt more than nine months of war that has devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.

The meeting also comes at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the US, is facing growing pressures to reach a ceasefire deal. Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden asked Netanyahu to “seal the deal” and bring the hostages back while VP Kamala Harris urged him to end the war.

The Biden administration announced that Israel and the US were working to bridge their differences on the matter while Harris, the likely Democratic presidential candidate, stated that she would not remain silent about the “tragedy” and “suffering” experienced by Gazan civilians, urging all parties to come to an agreement.

Apart from this, countries like New Zealand, Australia and Canada have joined the chorus to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and asked Israel to respond to a United Nations court which last week ruled its occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal.

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, its strongest findings to date on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu on Friday said that he would send an Israeli delegation to Rome for the ceasefire talks during his meeting with former US President Donald Trump.

With inputs from agencies