The Israeli withdrawal plans, recently presented to mediators, are the core of the disagreement. While Israel has shown slight flexibility regarding the southern Gaza corridor, Hamas maintains that the current maps leave Israeli forces in control of wide areas within the territory.

No breakthrough was reported over the past 24 hours. One source noted that the last two days lacked “any genuine proximity talks,” underlining the deadlock in Doha-based negotiations.

In a bid to de-escalate, Hamas reportedly agreed to expand the buffer zone on Gaza’s border with Israel to 1 kilometer—up from a previous offer of 700 meters. Israel, however, continues to demand a wider buffer: 2 to 3 kilometers in Rafah and 1 to 2 kilometers elsewhere.

To avoid derailing the negotiations entirely, US mediators proposed delaying talks over troop withdrawal until the end of the negotiation process. Instead, they suggested focusing on more immediate issues—chiefly, the list of prisoners to be released in a potential deal and the mechanism for distributing humanitarian assistance.

The Israeli negotiation team remains in Doha, while US envoy Brett McGurk has not yet returned to the region, according to Axios.