Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is sending a negotiating team to Qatar for talks on a truce in Gaza, but rejected Hamas's earlier truce proposals.
"The changes that Hamas is seeking to make in the Qatari proposal were conveyed to us last night and are unacceptable to Israel," said a statement from his office.
Hamas said it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a "positive spirit", a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalize" a 60-day truce.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Mr Netanyahu said that the delegation will still fly to Qatar for talks over a possible deal to "continue the efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal that Israel agreed to".
Mr Netanyahu, who is due to meet President Trump in Washington on Monday, has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States secured temporary halts in fighting and the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said that top diplomat Badr Abdelatty held a phone call with Washington's main representative in the truce talks Steve Witkoff to discuss recent developments "and preparations for holding indirect meetings between the two parties concerned to reach an agreement".
Meanwhile, ahead of its weekly protest demanding the return of the hostages, the main group representing their families renewed its call for a negotiated agreement to bring them home.
"This is the hour to bring about a comprehensive deal that will guarantee the return of the last hostage," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
But recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel's rejection of Hamas's demand for guarantees of a lasting ceasefire.
Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in Gaza, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.
A US and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.
The group said two of its US staff members were wounded "in a targeted terrorist attack" at one of its aid centres in southern Gaza's Khan Younis today, adding that reports indicated a pair of assailants "threw two grenades at the Americans".
The Israeli military said it had evacuated the injured.
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Its operations have been marred by near-daily reports of Israeli fire on people waiting to collect rations.
UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said yesterday that more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.
But GHF chairman Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical leader allied to President Trump, on Wednesday rejected calls for the lead role in Gaza aid distributions to revert to UN agencies, saying: "We will not be shut down."
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Israeli military operations killed 35 people across Gaza today.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.
