Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States sat down with a Hamas delegation to hear the militant group's response to a proposal that would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

After the talks began, a top Israeli official accused Hamas of "thwarting the possibility of reaching an agreement" by refusing to give up its demand for an end to the war.

Shortly before 9 pm (1800 GMT), a senior Hamas source close to the negotiations told AFP the talks had ended for the day and would resume on Sunday.

Previous negotiations stalled in part on Hamas's demand for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated vows to crush the group's remaining fighters in the southern city of Rafah, which is flooded with displaced civilians.

The prospect of an assault on Rafah has sparked deepening international concern.

"Tough and long negotiations are expected for an actual deal," the official added.

More deaths:

The war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,654 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Gaza's civil defence agency and hospitals reported more deaths from Israeli strikes in Rafah as well as areas farther north.

The United Nations says more than 70% of Gaza's residential buildings have been completely or partly destroyed, and rebuilding will require an effort unseen since the aftermath of World War II.

Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a "No-brainer" for Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday.

"The reality in this moment is the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas," Blinken said.

The World Health Organization says 1.2 million people, half of the Gaza Strip's population, are sheltering in Rafah.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned "a full-scale military operation in Rafah... could lead to a bloodbath."

UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke said an assault on Rafah could "strike a disastrous blow" to agencies struggling to provide aid.

The war in Gaza has also triggered a surge in violence in the already restive occupied West Bank, where Israel said on Saturday its troops killed five Palestinian "terrorists" during a 12-hour siege near Tulkarem.

At least 496 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since October 7, according to an AFP tally.

'Open mind':

Egypt's Al-Qahera News, which is linked to the intelligence services, quoted an unidentified high-ranking source as saying "there is significant progress in the negotiations" and that the mediators have "reached an agreed-upon formula on most points of contention".

A senior Hamas official told AFP before the talks resumed that the movement "looks with an open mind to changes in the occupation's (Israel's) position and the American position, but there are issues that must be addressed".

Senior Hamas official Hossam Badran accused Netanyahu Friday of trying to undermine the latest truce proposal with his threats to keep fighting with or without a deal.

Badran said Netanyahu's insistence on attacking Rafah was calculated to "thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement".

The top Israeli official, who spoke anonymously, said: "What we are looking at is an agreement over a framework for a possible hostage deal."

He said that the sign of progress "would be if we send a delegation led by Mossad (intelligence service) chief (David Barnea) to Cairo".

Demonstrators have regularly taken to Israeli streets demanding the government reach a deal to bring the hostages home, with thousands again protesting in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

"War is not holy, life is," the protesters chanted.

The Israeli government says 128 hostages remain in Gaza, including 35 the military says are presumed dead.

Wartime wedding:

US President Joe Biden has come under mounting domestic pressure to leverage more concessions from Netanyahu's government over its conduct of the war.

A letter signed by 88 congressmen from Biden's Democratic Party expressed serious concern over Israel's "deliberate withholding" of aid for Palestinian civilians and urged Biden to consider halting arms sales unless Israel's conduct changes.

At US urging, Israel has facilitated more aid deliveries into Gaza in recent days but UN agencies say it has not averted advancing famine.

World Food Programme chief Cindy McCain said in an interview published Friday that there was already "full-blown famine in the north (of Gaza) and it's moving its way south".

In a rare break from the daily struggle to survive, dozens of Palestinians gathered under decorative lights in Khan Yunis for a mass wedding on Friday (Above right). The grooms, one of them on crutches, wore matching dark suits over white shirts.

The war remained close, though. The Israeli military said it struck a munitions site in the Khan Yunis area on Friday after a projectile was fired towards Israel.

Source | AFP