JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a delegation charged with negotiating a hostage deal with Hamas to be dispatched on Thursday, Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement said Netanyahu held a meeting on Sunday with the delegation and senior members of Israel's defense establishment.

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The statement did not specify the delegation's destination. Until now a ceasefire effort led by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States has failed to produce any deal, with both sides in the more than nine-month-old Gaza conflict blaming each other for the impasse.