Hamas arrives in Cairo for cease-fire talks with deal 'on the table'

A delegation from Hamas arrived in Cairo on Sunday for crunch talks on a Gaza cease-fire, billed as a potential final hurdle towards an agreement that would halt the fighting for six weeks.

Washington said a cease-fire deal was already "on the table," approved by Israel and awaiting only a sign-off from the militants. But the warring sides gave away little information on the state of any progress.

After the Hamas delegation arrived, a Palestinian official told Reuters the deal was "not yet there." From the Israeli side, there was no official confirmation even that its delegation was attending.

One source briefed on the talks had said Israel could stay away from Cairo unless Hamas first presented a full list of hostages who are still alive, a demand that a Palestinian source said Hamas had so far rejected as premature.

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Still, a U.S. official told reporters: "The path to a cease-fire right now literally at this hour is straightforward. And there's a deal on the table. There's a framework deal."

An agreement would bring the first extended truce of the war, which has raged for five months so far with just a week-long pause in November. Dozens of hostages held by the militants would be freed in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

Aid to besieged Gaza would be ramped up to save the lives of Palestinians pushed to the verge of famine. Fighting would cease in time to head off a massive planned Israeli assault on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are penned in against the enclave's border fence. Israeli forces would pull back from some areas and allow Gazans to return to homes abandoned earlier in the war.

But a deal would stop short of fulfilling the main Hamas