Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there has been “significant progress” in hostage talks with Hamas, though an Arab official familiar with the hostage negotiations rejected the assertion.

“It’s too early to raise hopes,” Netanyahu said in a video statement touting “significant progress,” adding, “but we are working tirelessly right now, and all the time. I hope we will be able to move forward.”

Hostage release-ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been at an impasse since the terror group’s response in late May to US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal, which he termed “unacceptable.”

Netanyahu convened a meeting of senior officials Tuesday evening to discuss “next steps” in the ongoing hostage talks, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

“In light of certain progress in the negotiations,” the PMO wrote, Netanyahu met with Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and members of the negotiation team “in order to receive updates on the framework for the release of our hostages and to discuss next steps.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also said, “There has recently been certain progress. In light of past experience, I don’t want to overstate it at this point.”

The US proposal offered a 60-day truce in the war-torn Gaza Strip, accompanied by a partial Israeli military withdrawal and increased humanitarian aid deliveries, in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages.

Hamas’s response to the offer included a demand that would make it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire were not completed by the end of the 60-day truce. It also envisioned the release of the 10 living hostages being spread out throughout the truce, rather than in two batches on the first and seventh day as the US offer had stipulated.

Netanyahu’s announcement came as he appeared to be coming under unprecedented pressure from US President Donald Trump to reach a deal.

According to Channel 12, Trump told Netanyahu during a Monday phone call that he expects him to go beyond reaching a deal through the Witkoff framework and end the war in Gaza.

Ending the war will aid negotiations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, the president reportedly said. The understanding is that Washington is prepared to offer Hamas strong guarantees to end the war, according to the report.

An Arab official familiar with the hostage negotiations poured cold water on Israeli optimism.

There hasn’t been a major development in efforts to secure a deal, said the official, speculating that Netanyahu is expressing public optimism to “spook” ultra-Orthodox lawmakers against voting Wednesday to dissolve his coalition.

Shas and fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism have said that they will vote for a measure to dissolve the Knesset in its preliminary reading on Wednesday due to the coalition’s failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service.

“The disagreements over whether the deal can lead to a permanent ceasefire remain,” the Arab official told The Times of Israel, noting that Netanyahu is not prepared to end the war while Hamas won’t agree to release hostages unless it has assurances from mediators that the temporary truce on the table will lead to a permanent one.

“The public statements seem to have more to do with internal politics,” the Arab official said. “Could a breakthrough be achieved soon? Yes. But this will require one of the sides moving from their long-held position, which hasn’t yet happened.”

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 54 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, as well as the body of a soldier killed in 2014.

Of those still held in Gaza, 20 are believed to be alive and 33 have been confirmed dead. There are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.

One of the slain hostages, Thai national Nattapong Pinta, was flown home on Tuesday.

Israel “does not forget its friends,” said Interior Minister Moshe Arbel at the farewell ceremony to see off the body of Pinta, who was abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.

“Pinta came here to support his family, and in the end, he paid with his life for unimaginable barbarity,” said Arbel.

His remains were recovered in a joint Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet operation in the southern Gaza Strip, officials announced Saturday morning.

He was kidnapped alive by terrorists of the Mujahideen Brigades — a relatively small terror group in the Strip and somewhat allied with Hamas — from the border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he worked as a farmhand.

The IDF said it believed that the terror group murdered Pinta in captivity in the early months of the war.