War criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, faces mounting pressure from all sides of Israel’s fractured political landscape, torn between his far-right coalition partners demanding the war continue and captives’ families urging him to accept a deal, experts say.

Tens of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv Saturday night to rally for a ceasefire-hostage deal, as the US-led proposal to end the Gaza war appeared to be moving forward.

“It’s now or never,” said a huge placard held above the crowd, with US President Donald Trump himself echoing the message and posting images of the banner.

After Trump told Israel on Friday to stop bombing Gaza in a Truth Social post accepting Hamas’s response to the proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to halt offensive operations in Gaza and decided to send a negotiation team to Cairo for final talks on the deal’s details.

However, on Sunday an Israeli government spokesperson says there is no ceasefire taking effect in Gaza right now, but just a temporary halt to some of the bombing.

The spokesperson added that the army could continue operations in Gaza for defensive purposes.

Israeli negotiators will leave for talks in Egypt tonight, and negotiations for the release of the captives expected to begin tomorrow.

Menachem Klein, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, said the proposed agreement has thrown the Israeli right wing into “crisis”.

“Israel faces a rethinking. The extreme right wing has to say goodbye to its dreams of achieving evacuation of Gaza and settlements inside Gaza,” Klein said. “The Israeli right wing is in a crisis, and the same goes for several army officers in Gaza.”

Netanyahu remains beholden to the ultranationalist parties Religious Zionism, headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Jewish Power, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have threatened to collapse the government if Israel agrees to end the war before achieving what they call “total victory” in Gaza.

“For the Israeli right wing, this is the dream coalition. They will never have a better one,” Klein said. “I assume Netanyahu promised Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to spoil the agreement after the hostages are back home and resume the war.”

Adding pressure to the process, Khalil al-Hayya, a senior official in Hamas’ political bureau, made a pre-recorded statement that aired in Qatar overnight, in his first televised appearance since Israel targeted him and other Hamas officials in Doha last month.

Hamas’s top officials survived a strike which killed six people and sparked international condemnation, including a rebuke from US President Donald Trump.

The Hamas leader remained defiant in the interview, saying he drew no distinction between those killed in the attack on Doha, including his son, and the tens of thousands who have been killed during Israel’s two year war on Gaza.

“We hope that their blood will pave the way to victory, the way to Jerusalem, the way to the disgrace of the occupation, and the way to the dignity and triumph of the nation,” he said in the video aired by Al Araby Television Network in Qatar.

The video was broadcast as Israeli and Hamas negotiators began heading to Cairo on Sunday for indirect talks aimed at ending the fighting in Gaza, according to Egyptian media.

Meanwhile, as talks over Gaza are set to take place in Egypt, Tamer Qarmout, associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israel and the US appear determined to exert pressure on Hamas to move the process forward.

“The Israelis and the Americans want to put Hamas under maximum pressure to expedite the process,” he said, adding that there is a global shift in public opinion over Gaza that is also creating pressure on the US and Israel.

“There is a critical junction with shifting public opinion – like South African dynamics when apartheid collapsed,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is a great momentum. And I think all parties have to jump on this opportunity and try to end this in the most civilised way. We need this momentum.”

Qarmout noted that there is broad agreement among mediators that this round of negotiations must be given a genuine chance to succeed.

“The general consensus among key players is that they should give this a real opportunity. There are so many stakes in this agreement: reputations, egos, even Nobel Peace Prizes – and so many incentives for all parties.”