Extract from ABC News
Hamas says its delegation has left Cairo and that talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release will resume next week, making it extremely unlikely that mediators will broker a deal before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mediators had looked to Ramadan as an informal deadline because the month of dawn-to-dusk fasting often sees Israeli-Palestinian violence linked to access to a major Jerusalem holy site.
The war already has the wider region on edge, with Iran-backed groups trading fire with Israel and the United States.
Egyptian officials had earlier said the negotiations had reached an impasse over the Hamas demand for a phased process, culminating in an end to the war. But they did not rule out a deal before Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Sunday or Monday.
Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha says Israel "refuses to commit to and give guarantees regarding the ceasefire, the return of the displaced, and withdrawal from the areas of its incursion." But he says the talks are still ongoing and will resume next week.
There was no immediate comment from Israel after Thursday's announcement from Hamas.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for weeks to broker an agreement on a six-week ceasefire and the release of 40 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The Egyptian officials say Hamas has agreed to the main terms of such an agreement as a first stage. But Hamas also wants commitments that will lead to an eventual more permanent ceasefire. Egypt says Israel wants to confine the negotiations to the more limited agreement.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the negotiations with the media. Both officials said mediators were still pressing the two parties to soften their positions.
Hamas has said it will not release all of the remaining hostages without a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory. Palestinian militants are believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others captured during Hamas' October 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.
Hamas is also demanding the release of a large number of prisoners, including top militants serving life sentences, in exchange for the remaining hostages.
Hamas is believed to be holding the hostages deep inside its vast tunnel network, where rescue operations would be virtually impossible, and using them as human shields for its top leaders. It hopes to use them as bargaining chips to end the war on its terms.
That poses a major dilemma for Israel, which at some point may have to choose between its two main goals of bringing back the hostages and trying to annihilate Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly ruled out Hamas' demands, saying Israel intends to resume the offensive after any ceasefire, expand it to the crowded southern city of Rafah and battle on until "total victory". He has said military pressure would help bring about the release of the hostages.
Potential for confrontations during Ramadan
Ramadan is a time of heightened prayer, reflection and charity for Muslims the world over, who hold festive nightly gatherings with family and friends after fasting ends at sundown. The lunar month is expected to begin Sunday or Monday, depending on the sighting of the Moon.
In past years, Israeli forces and Palestinians have clashed in Jerusalem over access to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop on which it is built is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Jewish temples in antiquity.
Hamas says it launched its October 7 attack partly in response to what it sees as Israel's encroachment on the site and has called for heightened confrontations with Israel during the holy month. Israeli authorities say access to the site will remain unchanged from previous years.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured another 250 when they stormed across the border on October 7. Over 100 hostages were released in a ceasefire deal last year.
Israel launched a massive air, land and sea campaign in Gaza that has driven some 80 per cent of the population from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 30,717 Palestinians have been killed. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tallies but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
The ministry maintains detailed records and its casualty figures from previous wars have largely matched those of the UN and independent experts.
Israel says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence. It blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because its fighters operate in dense, residential neighbourhoods.
Gaza is mired in a humanitarian crisis, and conditions are particularly dire in the north, where the offensive has caused widespread devastation. Many of the estimated 300,000 people still living there have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive, and the UN says one in six children younger than two in the north suffers from acute malnutrition.
Facing global calls to alleviate the crisis, Israeli officials said on Wednesday that they will begin allowing aid to move directly from its territory into northern Gaza and will also cooperate with the creation of a sea route from Cyprus.
Aid groups have said it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order. It is even more difficult to get aid to the north.
A temporary port in Gaza to be set up
US president Joe Biden will announce in his State of the Union speech on Thursday that the US military will set up a temporary port on Gaza's Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian aid by sea, senior administration officials said.
Planning for the operation, initially based on the island of Cyprus, does not envisage the deployment of US military personnel in Gaza, the officials told a news briefing.
Mr Biden will tell congress he is ordering the US military "to undertake an emergency mission to establish a port in Gaza, working with like-minded countries and humanitarian partners", one official said.
The facility would accommodate large ships carrying food, water, medical supplies and temporary shelters.
Washington will work with European and regional partners and allies to build an international coalition of countries that would contribute capabilities and funds, the officials said.
An Israeli official said Israel "fully supports the deployment of a temporary dock" on Gaza's coast and the operation "will be carried out with full coordination between the two parties".
While Israel is increasing the number of aid-bearing trucks allowed into Gaza, and the US and other countries have been air-dropping supplies, the amounts of assistance getting in are insufficient, a US official said.
"We're not waiting for the Israelis [to allow in more aid]," the official continued.
"This is a moment for American leadership."
The temporary port would increase humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza by "hundreds of additional truckloads" per day, the official said, adding that the US would coordinate security with Israel.
It also would work with the UN and humanitarian aid organisations that "understand the distribution of assistance within Gaza", the official said.
The official said the operation would "take a number of weeks to plan and execute" and that the US forces required for it are in the region or would soon begin moving there.
The US operation would build on a Cypriot government initiative that calls for collecting humanitarian aid in the island's port city of Larnaca, the officials said.
That would permit Israeli officials to screen shipments before they are transported to Gaza.
While the temporary port in Gaza would initially be a military-run operation, Washington envisions it becoming a commercially run facility, the official said.
AP
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