The Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement will give its final decision on Saturday on a long-term ceasefire deal with Israel, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported on Thursday.
Over the past four days, a visiting Hamas delegation held four rounds of intensive talks with Egyptian mediators on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, said MENA.
The talks between the Hamas delegation and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is in charge of the mediation talks, concluded Wednesday night.
Representatives of the Hamas team are due to leave for Damascus and Gaza Thursday for consultations with other Palestinian factions to adopt a final decision on the ceasefire.
The Hamas team will "return to Cairo on Saturday with a final decision," said MENA, citing a well-informed Egyptian source.
During the talks with Egyptian officials, the Hamas delegation, led by the movement's political bureau member Emad al-Alami, probed means of reaching a lasting truce, the resumption of an inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue and the rebuilding of Gaza, said the source.
Egypt has proposed a "lasting" truce between Israel and Palestinian militant groups as of Feb. 5 and a fresh bout of the inter-Palestinian dialogue on Feb. 22, which was boycotted by Hamas last November.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and about 5,500 others wounded in the 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza, which died out on Jan. 18 with the warring sides carried out unilateral ceasefire respectively, reported Xinhua.