The Prime Minister’s Office announced on Tuesday afternoon that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be convening a series of cabinet meetings in the evening, apparently to approve a deal that would see the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas.

The announcement from the PMO stated that Netanyahu would be gathering ministers “in light of developments on the issue of the release of our hostages,” without elaborating.

Netanyahu is slated to convene the war cabinet at 6 p.m. local time, the broader security cabinet at 7 p.m. and the full cabinet at 8 p.m.

The announcement was the first confirmation from Israel that a serious deal to release some of the approximately 240 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza since October 7 is close.

Netanyahu told a group of soldiers Tuesday afternoon that “we are making progress. I don’t think I should say too much more, even at this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon.”

Various reports of the deal have indicated that somewhere between 50 and 100 Israeli and foreign hostages would be released, in exchange for a five-day break in fighting and the release of somewhere between 150 and 300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Reports over the past week have said that Israel was demanding the release of all the children held in Gaza and their mothers as a condition.

Minister Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, said Tuesday afternoon that “the entire Israeli society, all its tribes, right and left, are praying for and want the return of our boys and girls home safely. We are doing everything we can to bring them back as fast as possible.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel will need to make “difficult decisions” with regard to any such deal: “We are moving step by step toward the total defeat of Hamas and getting closer to bringing the hostages home.”

“We will all have to make difficult, important decisions in the coming days,” he said following an assessment at the IDF Gaza Division base in southern Israel. “There is not a moment throughout this campaign, 45 days, that I don’t think about the hostages.”

The comments came after both the leader of Hamas and key mediator Qatar both said a truce agreement with Israel was in sight.

Reports have varied on the exact makeup of the deal.

Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the tentative agreement would include an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, along with a five-day pause in fighting in Gaza.

The deal, according to AFP, would see a complete pause of IDF operations on the ground in the Gaza Strip and an end to Israeli air operations over the territory, except in the north, where they would only halt for six hours daily, sources said.

Between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel, and in exchange, some 300 Palestinians would be freed from Israeli jails, among them women and minors, according to sources cited by AFP.

Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said Tuesday that an agreement could be reached “in the coming hours.” Hamas’s leader in exile, Ismail Haniyeh, also said a deal was close, but similar predictions in recent weeks have proven premature.

Qatar said Tuesday afternoon it was “very optimistic” on finalizing a deal that would see the release of dozens of hostages.

Majed Al Ansari, the spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on X: “We are working towards an agreement taking place and we are now at the closest point we ever have been in reaching and an agreement. We are very optimistic, we are very hopeful, but we are also very keen for this mediation to succeed in reaching a humanitarian truce.”

Support from Israel’s full cabinet is required to approve any hostage release deal that includes freeing Palestinian prisoners, according to the Israel Democracy Institute’s Moran Kandelshtein-Haina.

In line with a 2014 amendment to the Government Law, the cabinet is required to approve the early release of prisoners. Early release is possible only under tight national security or foreign relations conditions, including the release of Israeli citizen or residents held hostage, or as part of a foreign policy agreement.

Earlier Tuesday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that any deal that included the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails would be “a very, very big mistake.”

Ben Gvir told Channel 14 that any such swap “will bring us to disaster,” pointing to the 2011 deal to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners — including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, thought to be the mastermind of the October 7 massacre — in exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

The Otzma Yehudit party leader said later Tuesday that he was going to convene a meeting of his party in order to determine its stance toward the emerging hostage deal.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that he was receiving a security briefing from the prime minister’s military secretary ahead of the succession of cabinet meetings Tuesday evening.

Family members of many of the hostages met Monday evening with Netanyahu and members of the war cabinet.. Many of them have been harshly critical of the government’s failure to bring their loved ones home more than six weeks after their capture.

Several family members left in the middle of the meeting, fuming over what they said were mixed messages the government has given them regarding the goals of the war.

The families have been organizing protests, rallies, and marches to press the government on securing their loved ones’ release. On Saturday, families of hostages and thousands of their supporters demonstrated in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in a rally focused in particular on the some 40 children believed held in Gaza.

Since October 7, four hostages have been released from Gaza, one was rescued in an IDF operation and the bodies of two hostages were recovered by the military and brought back to Israel.

Agencies, Emanuel Fabian and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.