CAIRO (Reuters) – Talks involving Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediators aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war were still ongoing on Thursday but showed no sign of show a breakthrough, two Egyptian security sources said.
The talks began on Wednesday, when CIA Director William Burns met with senior officials from Qatar and Egypt in Doha to discuss a proposal that US President Joe Biden publicly endorsed last week. Biden described the three-phase plan as an Israeli initiative.
The talks in Qatar were aimed at finding a formula that could reassure Hamas on its demand for guarantees that the deal would bring a complete cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the area, Egyptian sources said.
Hamas expressed concerns about some provisions of the proposal, especially the second phase, the sources added.
According to a summary of the plan published by the White House, the second phase includes a permanent end to hostilities and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
The Egyptian sources said Qatari and Egyptian mediators had separately met with Hamas and US officials in Doha. They said there was no indication a deal was close.
Qatari, Egyptian and American officials have been in negotiations for months to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday that the group would “deal seriously and positively with any agreement based on a comprehensive cessation of aggression and complete withdrawal and prisoner exchange.”
Israel said there would be no end to fighting during ceasefire negotiations as it carried out a new attack on a central part of the Gaza Strip.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Thursday that while the group welcomed what he called “Biden’s ideas,” the US draft resolution at the UN Security Council was conditional on an Israeli ceasefire proposal that Hamas had seen and rejected.
“The (US) document… makes no mention of ending the aggression or withdrawing,” he said.
“The Israeli documents speak of open-ended negotiations with no deadline, and speak of a phase in which the occupation gets its hostages back and resumes the war. We had told the mediators that such a document was not acceptable to us,” he said. Abu Zuhri.
He said Hamas backed his May 5 proposal, which was based on an end to the fighting and an Israeli withdrawal, a swap deal and lifting the blockade of the enclave.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, according to Gaza health officials. Thousands more are feared buried under the rubble.
(Reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo, Writing by Aidan Lewis, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
