‘No concrete progress’ in Gaza truce talks

• Israel to be involved in Gaza security, not aid distribution: US envoy 
• Hamas fighters engaged in 'fierce fighting' in Rafah
• Trump to visit KSA, UAE, Qatar from May 13-16

A Hamas delegation held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha this week but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce, sources close to the group said yesterday.

"Egyptian officials met twice with a high-level Hamas delegation led by (chief negotiator) Khalil al-Hayya (and) Qatari officials on Wednesday and Thursday in Doha," one source told AFP.

A second source said the talks were "serious" but made "no concrete progress".

Israel announced plans on Monday to expand its military campaign, drawing a chorus of international criticism. Israel's military has said the expanded operations approved by the security cabinet on Sunday would include displacing "most" of Gaza's population.

An Israeli security source said there was still a "window of opportunity" for a hostage release deal to be struck to coincide with US President Donald Trump's May 13 to 16 visit to the region.

But one of the sources close to Hamas told AFP yesterday: "We do not expect an agreement to be concluded" by then.

Hamas fighters engaged in "fierce fighting" with Israeli soldiers on Thursday in the south of the Gaza Strip near Rafah, the Palestinian group said.

The statement, issued on Telegram, suggests that Hamas is still active in areas. In a later statement, it said fighters ambushed an Israeli 12-man force inside a house in the Tanur neighborhood in the eastern Rafah area with two anti-personnel and anti-armour rockets, killing and wounding several soldiers.

The Israeli army confirmed in a statement yesterday that two of its soldiers had been killed in combat in the southern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said yesterday that Israel and Hamas will not be involved in Gaza aid distribution but Israel will take part in providing security, reports Reuters.

Israel cut most aid supplies into Gaza after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. It let more aid into the enclave during a fragile ceasefire that began in January this year but cut off all supplies when it resumed its offensive against Hamas in March.

"The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary military security because it is a war zone but they will not be involved in the distribution of the food or even bringing the food into Gaza," Huckabee told a press conference.

Asked whether the supply of aid was dependent on a ceasefire being agreed between Israel and Hamas, Huckabee said: "The humanitarian aid will not depend on anything other than our ability to get the food into Gaza."

"So, it is not dependent upon other things regarding military action," he said.

Meanwhile, a UNRWA spokeswoman yesterday said it is "very difficult" to imagine any operation to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip without the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

"It is impossible to replace UNRWA in a place like Gaza. We are the largest humanitarian organisation," the agency's spokeswoman Juliette Touma told a press conference in Geneva.

Little is known for sure about the body proposed by the United States, but a listing in Switzerland showed the establishment in February of the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation".