A round of high-level talks in Cairo meant to bring about a ceasefire and hostage deal to at least temporarily end the 10-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza ended on Sunday without a final agreement, a US official said.
Talks will continue at lower levels in the coming days to bridge the remaining gaps.
The official said lower-level “working teams” will remain in Cairo to meet mediators from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt in hopes of addressing remaining disagreements.
The official called the recent conversations, which began on Thursday in Cairo, “constructive” and said all parties were working to “reach a final and implementable agreement”.
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The talks included CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. A Hamas delegation was briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but did not directly take part in negotiations.
The end of the talks came as Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah traded heavy fire early on Sunday.
Hizbullah claimed it had hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv as part of a barrage of hundreds of rockets and drones, while Israel claimed its dozens of strikes had been pre-emptive to avert a larger attack. Neither offered evidence.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the attack, a response to Israel’s killing of a top militant commander in Beirut last month, had been delayed to give the Gaza ceasefire talks a chance, and so fellow Iran-backed groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once.
“We will now reserve the right to respond at a later time” if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient,” Mr Nasrallah said, adding that allied Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran had yet to respond. He told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.”
Iran’s foreign minister said the country will retaliate over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
“Iran reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated,” Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it – unlike Israel.”
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the military eliminated thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel and shot down drones heading for the centre of the country. “I repeat – this is not the end of the story,” he said.
Israel’s military spokesman said about 100 Israeli planes struck 270 targets, 90 per cent of them rocket launchers aimed at northern Israel.
Hizbullah said its attack involved more than 320 Katyusha rockets aimed at multiple sites in Israel and a “large number” of drones. – AP