CAIRO, June 6 : Talks involving Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war were still underway on Thursday but had shown no sign of a breakthrough, two Egyptian security sources said.
The talks began on Wednesday, when CIA director William Burns met 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 over its demand for guarantees that the deal would deliver a complete cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory, the 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 as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The Egyptian sources said that Qatari and Egyptian mediators had met separately with Hamas and US officials in Doha. They said there was no indication a deal was close to being reached.
Qatari, Egyptian and US officials have been holding negotiations for months aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza as well as 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 that is based on a comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoners swap.”
Israel said there would be no halt to fighting during ceasefire talks as it mounted a new assault on a central section 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 dependent on an Israeli ceasefire proposal Hamas had seen and had rejected.
“The (US) document...has no mention of ending the aggression or the withdrawal,” he said.
“The Israeli documents speak of open-ended negotiation with no deadline, and it speaks of a stage during which the occupation regains its hostages and resumes the war. We had told the mediators that such a paper wasn’t acceptable to us,” said Abu Zuhri.
He said Hamas was committed to its May 5 proposal which was was based on an end to the fighting and an Israeli withdrawal, a swap deal, and a lifting of the blockade of the enclave. The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, who say thousands more are feared buried under the rubble.

SANAA: At least 18 combatants have been killed in battles between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militia in the country’s southwest, two military officials told AFP on Thursday.
The clashes on Wednesday were triggered by a Houthi attack on a frontline area between government-controlled parts of Lahij governorate and Houthi-run parts of Taiz province, said Mohammed Al-Naqib, a spokesperson for the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist group allied with the government.
The attack came despite a lull in fighting that has largely held since the expiry of a six-month truce brokered by the United Nations in April 2022.
Yemeni government “forces succeeded in repelling the attack, but five soldiers were martyred and others wounded,” Naqib told AFP.
A Houthi military official in Taiz told AFP that 13 fighters, including a senior commander, were also killed.
Yemen’s internationally-recognized government condemned the Houthi offensive as a “treacherous attack.”
In a statement on social media platform X on Wednesday, Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said the counterattack by Yemeni government forces “inflicted heavy losses on (Houthi) militia members,” without specifying a toll.
While hostilities have remained low, sporadic fighting has occasionally flared in parts of the country.
In April, a surprise Houthi attack killed 11 fighters loyal to the Yemeni government in Lahij province.
The Houthis seized control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.
Nine years of war have left hundreds of thousands dead through direct and indirect causes, and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In December, the UN envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said warring parties had committed to a new ceasefire and agreed to engage in a UN-led peace process to end the conflict.
But the peace process has stalled in the wake of Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea since November, a campaign the militia say is meant to signal solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war.
Eryani accused the Houthis of exploiting the Gaza war to amass fighters, weapons and resources to boost their capabilities on the home front.