Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani reportedly spoke with Iranian leaders Thursday night and urged them to consider the harm that attacking Israel could do to ongoing hostage-truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Quoting a senior source from one of “the mediating countries” — Qatar, Egypt and the United States — the report in the Ynet news site said al-Thani was effectively telling his Iranian interlocutors that “you need to thoroughly consider if it’s advisable, for you or Hezbollah, to attack Israel right now when there’s progress like this.”

The report said the phone call appeared to have an impact, asserting that officials from one of the mediating nations learned that Hezbollah has for now pushed off acting on a previous decision to attack Israel, echoing a report Thursday in The Washington Post.

“We can say that Hezbollah will not launch its retaliation operation during the Qatar talks because the party does not want to be held accountable for obstructing the talks or a potential deal,” a source close to Hezbollah told the newspaper.

American, Qatari and Egyptian officials met with the Israeli negotiating team, led by Mossad chief David Barnea, in Doha on Thursday to attempt to hammer out the details of a long-simmering phased deal to end some 10 months of fighting in Gaza.

A potential deal was touted as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict, after weeks of threats by Iran and Hezbollah to attack Israel in retaliation for two high-profile assassinations late last month.

Israel killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike on July 30, in response to a rocket attack by the terror group that killed 12 children and teens in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. Hours after Shukr’s assassination, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, in a blast widely attributed to Israel, which has remained mum on any role.

Negotiators in Doha decided Thursday to continue talks on Friday, after the first day of meetings ended with “constructive discussions,” two unnamed US officials told the Walla news site, asserting that certain progress was made, although reports before the talks had even begun said they were expected to last at least two days.

The Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement that mediators were committed “in their endeavors to reach a ceasefire in the Strip that would facilitate the release of hostages and enable the entry of the largest possible amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

The Israeli team accepted al-Thani’s invitation to remain in Doha overnight, despite security concerns about staying in the Qatari capital, Ynet reported.

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby called Thursday’s meetings a “promising start,” and said negotiations were expected to run into Friday.

A lot of work remains given the complexity of the agreement and negotiators were focusing on its implementation, Kirby said, adding that the mediators managed to “narrow some gaps” in the lead-up to the meeting in Doha. He described Thursday’s meeting as an important step toward a deal.

“The remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close,” he said.

Kirby’s comments were echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Lamy and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, set to visit Israel this weekend, where they will meet with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

During those meetings, the two Western diplomats will “stress there is no time for delays or excuses from all parties on a ceasefire deal” in Gaza, according to Britain’s foreign ministry.

“This is a dangerous moment for the Middle East. The risk of the situation spiraling out of control is rising,” Lamy said ahead of his visit.

Hamas officials did not join Thursday’s talks, accusing Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had US and international support and to which Hamas had agreed in principle.

However, mediators planned to consult with Hamas’s Doha-based negotiating team after the meeting, according to an official briefed on the talks. Hamas told mediators Wednesday that it would engage if Israel made a “serious” proposal that is in line with the group’s previous demands.

The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the over-100 hostages it is still holding in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinian security prisoners jailed by Israel.

Both Israel and Hamas have agreed in principle to the plan, which US President Joe Biden announced on May 31. But Hamas has proposed “amendments” and Israel has suggested “clarifications,” leading each side to accuse the other of making new demands it cannot accept.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands for a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north to root out terror operatives. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said the group is only interested in discussing the implementation of Biden’s proposal and not in further negotiations over its content.

The Biden proposal was based on a May 27 Israeli framework for a three-stage deal, with the first six-week period seeing a pause in Israeli ground operations and withdrawal of troops in exchange for the release of 33 hostages in the categories of women, children, elderly and wounded, alongside Israel freeing 990 Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu has said Hamas’s response to its proposal did not meet Israel’s minimum requirements.

It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

Agencies contributed to this report.