Biden presses for ceasefire and warns Israel not to attack Rafah without protecting civilians
The heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency are expected to hold talks with senior Egyptian and Qatari officials on Tuesday in an attempt to revive negotiations on a deal to halt the Israel-Hamas war and secure the release of hostages held in Gaza, said people familiar with the process.
Hamas also demanded Israeli forces pull back from big urban centres in Gaza during the first phase of the truce, and withdraw completely from the besieged strip in the second phase. The talks, brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt, have for weeks been bogged down by Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s insistence that any hostage deal should end with a permanent ceasefire.