National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Monday that he has been in regular contact with Palestinian officials since assuming his post, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is open to significant concessions to Ramallah in the context of a Saudi normalization deal.

“I have been conducting a dialogue with them in the name of the prime minister for eight months,” he said, in a rare admission of close contact between the two sides.

Speaking at the second day of the annual conference of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism Policy (ICT) at Reichman University in Herzliya, Hanegbi said that the conversations are taking place as part of a five-way dialogue with Jordan, Egypt, and the US. The parties met in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this year.

“We are trying to reach agreements on security matters, so they will take responsibility for the matters that touch on their lives, Area A, and so that the IDF won’t have to enter refugee camps in Jenin and Nablus instead of them,” he said.

In July, the IDF embarked on a major two-day operation in Jenin against the local Islamic Jihad branch and smaller armed groups.

Hanegbi said that senior officials on both sides are speaking in an “open manner about what they want to receive from the other side.”

He added that the talks are bearing fruit, including the fact that Arab countries are “actively interested in the success of the talks.”

Turning to the prospects of a deal with Riyadh, Hanegbi said that “it is important that the Palestinians are part of the process.”